Cinemark announces plan to reopen in early July

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Cinemark seems to think the COVID-19 pandemic will ease by the summer because they're eyeing a re-open that seems very optimistic.

Cinemark CFO and COO Sean Gamble told investors and financial analysts in a special conference call yesterday, via "Deadline",  that the chain is looking to “ramp up” by July 1 with employees coming back roughly two weeks prior in late June. Now, I should point out this may be determined on a state by state & county by county basis. They would also maybe look at reduced hours & days of the week. Cinemark is thinking that it will take about 3 months to get truly back to normal.

Their reopening timeline comes in a bit earlier than reports that were released yesterday from various U.S. theater owners that seemed to be hopeful to reopen their doors by the end of July. As of now, Cinemark is the only theater circuit that has released a hard date like this, although AMC CEO Adam Aron talked about being optimistic about a mid-June reopen but,  that seems unlikely for that particular brand.

Cinemark CEO and Board Director Mark Zoradi added there will be two weeks of “showing library product, high profile library product” as the chain expects a slow flow of attendance. This also coincides with already released plans form U.S. theater owners to work with studios to showcase older blockbuster titles such as the AVENGERS films or BACK TO THE FUTURE to ease moviegoers into going back to the movies again. The big blast off anticipated here is the weekend of July 17-19 when Christopher Nolan's TENET is still expected to open, for now. In terms of profit for the brand, they're saying occupancy levels of 20% to 30% is what they need & they think they can accomplish that with newly implemented social distancing guidelines.

I have to say that I like the optimism from the industry to get back out there again and I know various states across the nation are seeing a bending of the curve in terms of the coronavirus pandemic so perhaps it is time that we look to gradually easing back into a life of normalcy. I know it will take a little time for people to want to go out in crowds and see movies but we really do need to start somewhere.

Do YOU think Cinemark can keep its early July timeline?