Let me just fathom this, ladies and gentlemen. I cannot believe that it has been just one year ever since COVID-19 made every building lock down and every one of us had to be locked down, too. Not to get too personal, but I have been awaiting extremely patient to get back to my accustomed normal, which is to watch a movie in a darkened movie theater. I do not feel quite safe as of yet, but unlike March 16th, 2020, I am confident to say I can definitely see a very bright light at the end of the tunnel. Speaking of March 16th, 2020, let’s take a flashback to that day. The reason why I bring up this date is because it celebrates one year of the last time I was inside a building pre-pandemic.
On March 16, 2020, it was my last day working as a ticket taker at my beloved Regal Cinemas I have been going to since I was four. The movie industry was going through a MASSIVE downfall when many huge tent-pole films like “A Quiet Place: Part II” and “No Time to Die” got delayed towards later that year. However, considering the news for these films being delayed did not age well, they are now expected to release later this year. I am obviously confident in these studios because we know we’ll be in a better state of mind in 2021. With all of this in my mind, I was wondering how the theater was going to function without all of these huge tent-poles playing. Back when “Mulan” and “A Quiet Place: Part II” were off of the March schedule, the next big release on the calendar was not until April 10th with “Trolls: World Tour”.
Inside the movie theater, sure the vibrancy of lights, tasty and unhealthy concessions at the lobby, and advertisement televisions were still occurring, but there was loneliness and sorrow spread in the theater, which at the time, they were uncharacteristic traits that I would never imagine experiencing. People were seriously afraid to go to a movie theater. As a ticket taker, I sold around fifteen to twenty tickets with the last bunch of tickets I took were a group of young adults for Leigh Whannell’s masterpiece, “The Invisible Man”. Most importantly, no one’s normalized state of minds including me were prepared for what was (and still is) about to become a long and temporary global nightmare.
When people were not showing up, it was time for me to look at my phone. Many news stories on my Twitter feed were about box office reports falling short of money and other huge tent-pole films like “Black Widow” were getting delayed. However, there was one news story that completely caught my eye. Universal just announced their plan to release all of their current (at the time) theatrical movies (“The Invisible Man”, “Emma”, “The Hunt”) on VOD along with canceling the April 10th theatrical release of “Trolls: World Tour” and giving it what would be a game-changing move, releasing it on VOD.
As for the crew members and managers at the theater, I saw one of the couple of managers taking down posters of delayed films like “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway”, “Fast & Furious 9”, and “The Lovebirds”, characterizing the frowning sad clown face of the movie theater. He did replace the posters with other movies that were planned to release later in the year, but they also ended up being delayed. No crew members nor managers made jokey shenanigans toward each other by where I worked at, although many were surprised they were being furloughed from their jobs, which most of them were happy to leave. I sure as heck was not, but at the same time, I definitely needed a break from my job. After the constant delays of movies, I was sure the theater was not going to starve without any new movies. It totally showed when looking on my Twitter feed on my phone, Regal Cinemas announced that they were shutting down every location meaning March 16, 2020 would be the last day it would be open.
The most heartfelt aspect I would remember about this day is involving the head honcho manager, who is a very down-to-earth person by the way. He came up to me and reminded me about the news with Regal shutting down it’s locations. Near the end of my shift, I replied to him, “I’m gonna miss you.” The manager then replied to me back, “I’ll miss you too, buddy.” That will always be the aspect of March 16, 2020 when I think about my temporarily last time at an inside building.
This leads to me by saying that I believe the movie theater experience will recover. Heck, I looked on Fandango a couple days ago for tickets for “Godzilla vs. Kong” and many people reserved seats to see those livid monsters battle themselves on the big screen, where they truly belong. With Los Angeles and New York City open, if “Godzilla vs. Kong” opens with more money than a Tim Story “Tom & Jerry” movie, it will truly be the savior of cinema. When everything is safe and I am comfortable enough, you darn right I will come back to movie theaters.
