Theater Owners Chief on ‘Tenet’ Delay and Reopening Cinemas During Coronavirus

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAMC Entertainment lost $561.2 million during a quarter where the world’s largest exhibitor’s cinemas were closed to moviegoers and virtually its entire staff was laid off or furloughed. Revenues at the company topped out at $18.9 million, a 98% plunge from the year-ago period.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNext year’s Sundance Film Festival will be significantly shorter than previous editions of the annual celebration of the best in indie cinema.

Dave McNary Film ReporterAs a theater chain whose business model relies on serving food and drinks during movies, the Studio Movie Grill might be facing even more challenges than the rest of the exhibition industry.But Dallas-based Studio Movie Grill is still offering snacks and meals in both the theater auditoriums and lounge areas at the chain’s nine locations that are currently open.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaCinemark isn’t sold on AMC Theatres plans to shorten the length of time that films play in theaters.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaHerman Cain, the Godfather’s Pizza chief who launched an improbable run for the White House, has died of coronavirus. He was 74.Cain briefly vaulted to the top of the pack of Republic presidential contenders in 2011 on the strength of his catchy 9–9–9 tax plan, which advocated replacing taxes with a 9% personal income tax, 9% federal sales tax, and a 9% corporate tax.Cain’s rise was short-lived, however.

Dave McNary Film ReporterThe National Association of Theatre Owners, the exhibition industry’s main lobbying group, has announced moviegoers have sent more than 200,000 letters to Congress in support of legislative relief measures for cinemas.NATO used the social media tag #SaveYourCinema to enlist movie patrons to urge Congress to enact the Restart Act to give movie theaters access to partially forgivable seven-year loans covering six months of expenses.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaMel Gibson battled coronavirus in April, coming down with a case severe enough to require the 64-year old actor and director to be hospitalized.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAmazon Studios is in final negotiations to buy worldwide rights to “Without Remorse” from Paramount Pictures, Variety has learned.The Tom Clancy thriller stars Michael B. Jordan as U.S.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAMC Theatres has delayed plans to reopen its cinemas as coronavirus cases surge across the United States. The company, which with more than 600 locations ranks as the country’s largest movie theater chain, will now open its venues in mid to late August.The problem of when and how moviegoing can safely resume and cinemas can broadly reopen has been a thorny one for the exhibition space.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThe makers of “Citizen Penn,” a documentary about actor Sean Penn’s volunteer work in Haiti, have updated their film to include footage of the Oscar-winner’s efforts to expand access to COVID-19 testing.Over the past few months, director Don Hardy and producer Shawn Dailey have followed Penn as he worked with his non-profit organization CORE to set up free testing sites in places such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, New Orleans and the

Getting kids back to school this fall could pose some serious problems.

Yesterday, it was announced that “Tenet” will delay its release from August 12 to an unknown date in the future. With the uncertainty of that move, we’re fully expecting to see delays from the other studios with films like “Mulan,” as we’ve seen with the previous “Tenet” delays.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChina reopened the doors of its cinemas on Monday, after nearly five months of closure. But audiences only trickled in.The re-opening was restricted to theaters in cities and regions where the coronavirus is deemed to have been vanquished.

Rebecca Davis editorChina will begin reopening cinemas in “low-risk regions” from July 20, the China Film Administration announced Thursday, ending nearly six months of closures that left thousands of theaters bankrupt. “Cinemas in low-risk regions can resume business in an orderly manner on July 20, with the effective implementation of prevention and control measures.

Tom Tapp Deputy Managing EditorJust days after his full-throated rejection of all things coronavirus was retweeted by President Donald Trump, former game show host Chuck Woolery’s Twitter account was no more.It was unclear on Wedesday evening whether the disappearance was related to a widespread hack Twitter experienced earlier on Wednesday, or whether Twitter or Woolery himself removed the account. On Sunday Woolery wrote, “The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIf movie theaters are banking on Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” to ride to their rescue, they may have to wait a lot longer for help.That’s the takeaway from a new note by Eric Handler, a leading exhibition industry analyst with MKM Partners, who predicts that there’s a “low likelihood” that “Tenet” will open on Aug.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all in the US. Obviously, this means a lot more for the most at-risk folks that are being hospitalized and killed due to the illness than it does for Hollywood, but the fact remains that the film industry is in crisis right now.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAMC Theatres reached a debt agreement on Friday that could help the heavily leveraged exhibition chain avoid or at least forestall a liquidity crisis.Under the deal, Silver Lake Group will purchase $100 million in first lien notes, adding to the $600 million in convertible bonds that it already holds in AMC.