‘No, don’t go to a movie theater right now, you dummies,’ say experts…basically

AMC opens up 100 theaters today, which is obviously a bad idea given the pandemic. But HOW bad? Let’s ask some epidemiologists.

The coronavirus has hit a lot of industries, some harder than most. Take movie theaters: their business model depends on crowding people into poorly ventilated rooms and having them sit for two hours to laugh and gasp and eat before getting up and letting a stranger have their sit. Given what we know about how the coronavirus spreads, it’s no wonder not a lot of folk are eager to return to the movies, but AMC is going ahead with plans to open back up anyway.

Part of me wants to ask, “Is this a good idea?” but I feel that undersells it. A better question is, “Just how terrible an idea is this?” The A.V. Club talked to a couple subject matter experts to find out.

“I’m a huge fan of movies. I really enjoy them,” said Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a physician, epidemiologist and former city health commissioner. “They’re a great way to have some fun and escape from the world—which we need, especially right now.”

"But going to see a movie in an indoor movie theater, it’s just about the last thing I would do right now. From what we understand, the virus is transmitted through through aerosolized droplets that come out of our mouths, oftentimes when we talk or when we laugh or when we sing. And so, being in a room for two hours with a bunch of folks who are laughing at a movie, and where air is not being circulated in an efficient way, and where you don’t know who has been in there before you, that’s really hazardous exposure. I just don’t think it’s worth it."

Dr. Anne W. Rimoin agrees. She’s a professor of epidemiology and director of the Center For Global And Immigrant Health at the University Of California, Los Angeles. “Short of renting out an entire theater, which is obviously not an option for most of us, there is no scenario in which going to a movie theater is a good idea,” she said.

I think we can all agree that the best answer to the question, “How can you go to the movies and not be at risk of catching or spreading the coronavirus?” is simply, “Don’t go to the movies.” But the fact is that theaters are starting to reopen anyway, so if you do go, what steps should be taken?

“If a movie theater is opening, they should close concessions and they need to have employees in the theaters with night-vision goggles to be able to really see people and make sure that nobody’s bringing in food and everyone is wearing masks at all times,” Rimoin said. “That’s another reason movie theaters aren’t a good idea: You can’t control what everybody else is doing around you. So if you’re in room with however many people for a few hours, and you don’t know their risk statuses, you’re totally subject to the risk of everybody else around you.”

"And if they’re selling concessions, people are gonna be taking off their masks and eating, and that’s tantamount to eating in a restaurant in a closed space—even worse, because you’re basically in a closed box. There aren’t even windows, there’s no ventilation. Right now you want to be thinking about “time, space, people, place”: You want to think the about the amount of time you’re spending, how socially distant you can be, who you will be around, and what the ventilation is like. And it’s not just one of those boxes you should check; you need to be checking all of them."

El-Sayed agrees that concessions should be closed and everything wiped down. Beyond that, try and have as little contact with everything as possible. “I’d tell people to wear a mask and keep it on the entire time,” he said. “And do everything touchless: Buy your ticket online, have it on your phone, don’t let them touch your phone when they scan it. Don’t spend any time in the common spaces: Go straight to your theater, sit as far away from folks as you possibly can.”

Once again, we’re kind of arriving at, “Just don’t go to the movies, people.” Things will go back to normal eventually, but not now. “When it would be safe would be when we have community transmission under control here, so that is not widespread and we’re only dealing with very small clusters,” Rimoin said. “When there’s adequate testing and tracing and you only have these little brush fires, not a huge flash fire like we currently have. I just don’t think that we are anywhere near that level, and I don’t foresee us being there any time in the near future.”

El-Sayed, meanwhile, suggested some alternatives: “Outdoor movie theaters, or watching a movie in your car, those are great. But the safest thing is to stay home and watch it on Netflix. We have to remember that it’s not just our risks that we’re talking about. It’s about whether or not we are serving as a vessel to spread it to people who may not be as healthy.”

Just stay home and watch Netflix? Way ahead of you.

Some studios are making that easier, like Disney, which is releasing tentpole movie Mulan straight to Disney+. And as much as I love going to the movies, a recent survey of moviegoers obtained Variety found that most people would be okay with more of that. For example, 54% of respondents said that while they’d prefer to see Christopher Nolan’s new spy thriller Tenet in a movie theater, they’d also be fine seeing it at home. Another 30% don’t care about seeing it in a theater at all. And again, drive-in movies could offer a compromise.

And yet, AMC is opening 100 theaters today, so…good luck, everyone.

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