Movie theaters reopen in some parts of New York

NEW YORK - Movie theaters across New York with the exception of theaters in New York City, Rockland County and Orange County, reopened Friday with limited capacity and other COVID-19 restrictions.

A maximum of 50 people per screen is permitted, theaters can only operate at 25% capacity, masks must be worn by everyone except while eating and drinking at your seat. Assigned seating is in effect to ensure social distancing.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the reopening plan last week. He said NYC, Rockland and Orange Counties did not qualify because the positivity rate was above 2% on a 14-day average and due to “cluster zones.”

The movie theater industry has work to do if it wants to lure people back post-pandemic. Many consumers say they are unlikely to return to movie theaters. Instead, they have flocked to home video streaming services and video games, according to the Colling Media Snapshot Survey

65.5% of U.S. consumers say they are either very likely or likely to go back to seeing movies at a movie theater when the pandemic is over. But 20% of consumers are undecided about whether they will return to theaters, and 14.4% say they are either very unlikely or unlikely to do so. Just as concerning, 21.2% of consumers say they have not missed going to the movies.