iStock/NoDerog (LOS ANGELES) — Christopher Nolan’s Tenet hits theaters this weekend, the first real Hollywood blockbuster to open wide since the start of the pandemic. It will be a real test for the box office, and a real test for theaters. For moviegoers who may be a little worried about reentering a theatre, Mooky Greidinger, CEO of the second largest movie theater chain in the world, Cineworld, which owns Regal Cinemas in the U.S., says the theater is a pretty safe place to be, compared to other environments.
“The social distancing is far, far bigger than in a restaurant or in any other place,” he explains. “And if you take your mask out for 10 minutes or something to eat your popcorn and your drink is no harm.”
“They’re in the seat all the show. Everybody is looking at the same direction. So people are not facing one another. People are not talking,” he adds. “And so if we compare ourselves to other environment, because we are keeping social distancing and because of the fact that everybody needs to wear a mask in the cinema, I think we are a very safe environment.”
To put some customers minds even more at ease, Greidinger tells ABC Audio that in theaters where they’ve been open so far, the mandatory mask policy hasn’t been an issue.
“We had very, very small number of incidents of people, you know, rejecting the masks,” he reveals. “Very, very small number of any arguments or complaints was about the mask. A much less than we expected. We didn’t expect much. But we said there will be some incidents here and there are almost zero.”
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