How One Movie Theater Owner Is Selling Curbside Popcorn to Pay His Employees

Diane Rodriguez, an actress, director, playwright and producer who spent 24 years with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, died Friday of cancer in Los Angeles. She was 68.

By Bruce Haring

By Ted Johnson

By Nellie Andreeva

Ryan Tedder has a date to pay it forward today. The Grammy-winning songwriter, producer and lead singer of OneRepublic is the next featured artist to join forces with Verizon as part of the recently-launched streaming entertainment series Pay it Forward Live. He'll perform tonight from his home on a livestream at 8:00 p.m. EST / 5:00 p.m. PST on

Synetic: Richard 3.0

The National Association of Theatre Owners of California/Nevada has established a $1.25 million relief fund to assist employees of member theaters who have been laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi and the theater chain's board of directors are forgoing their entire salaries for the time being amid the coronavirus epidemic, while mandating deep pay reductions for all U.S. corporate employees, the company said Monday.

Independent promoter Dave Poe of New York-based Patchwork Presents, a partnership with Ineffable Music, and co-owner of promotion company Broadberry Entertainment Group Jessica Gordon in Richmond, Virginia, have come together to form the Independent Promoter Alliance in light of COVID-19 and its dire effects on the live music industry. The goal of the newly formed group is to talk regularly about current challenges and how individual businesses plan to work through this pandemic.

Bee Gees legend Barry Gibb, DJ Diplo, and singer/songwriter Ryan Tedder have all signed up to live-stream performances from home this weekend as part of a new fundraising concert.

Diplo, Barry Gibb, Ryan Tedder, Lauv, Charlie Puth, Die Antwoord, and many more have joined Twitch Stream Aid, a 12-hour charity stream kicking off this Saturday, March 28 at 9:00 AM PST on twitch.tv/twitch co-presented with Amazon Music. The livestream will benefit the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization. (See the full lineup in the poster below.)

On March 16, the same day major exhibitors AMC and Cinemark indefinitely shuttered all U.S. locations, NBCUniversal took a step toward collapsing the theatrical window.

The National Association of Theatre Owners commended the U.S. Senate’s bipartisan agreement to provide economic relief to the exhibition business and other industries that have had to close their doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Manchester City have written to their casual workers confirming they will be paid until the end of the season.

China is using the help of some famous franchises to boost its movie theaters after the coronavirus pandemic has become essentially contained in the country.

A Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for New York City movie theater workers who have been laid off or furloughed due to the coronavirus pandemic has reached its goal. The Cinema Workers Solidarity Fund has racked up $74,587 in donations, surpassing the $74,000 it set out to raise. The initiative was launched a week and a half ago by Light Industry, Screen Slate, and other community partners.

The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), the body that represents European movie theater owners, is calling on governments across the continent to do everything in their power to ensure that cinemas are able to overcome the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Amid widespread closures of movie theaters in the U.S., theater owners are applauding the efforts to pass coronavirus relief legislation to aid vulnerable employees and ensure business continuity during the coronavirus pandemic.