Airport Stadium 12, 409 Aviation Blvd., Santa Rosa. Reopens Wednesday. santarosacinemas.com
Boulevard 14 Cinemas, 200 C St., Petaluma. Reopens Wednesday. cinemawest.com
Reading Cinemas, 555 Rohnert Expressway W., Rohnert Park. Reopened March 19. readingcinemasus.com
Roxy Stadium 14, 85 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. Reopens Wednesday. santarosacinemas.com
Sebastiani Theatre, 476 First St. E., Sonoma. Reopens Friday. sebastianitheatre.com
Summerfield Cinemas, 551 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa. Reopens Wednesday. santarosacinemas.com
In the movie theaters, face masks are required except when customers are actively eating or drinking, and the theaters are taking steps to maintain social distance between customers.
Several local movie theaters plan to reopen Wednesday for the first time in a year, with limited capacity, the latest step toward the return of indoor entertainment as the coronavirus pandemic begins to ease.
Now that the county is in the red tier of the state’s four-stage community reopening plan, theaters are joining restaurants, gyms and other venues to reinstate indoor activities that were barred when the county was in the purple tier, the most restrictive stage.
Under the red tier, movie theaters are allowed to open indoors with 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer, according to county guidelines.
Santa Rosa theaters Roxy Stadium 14, Airport Stadium 12 and Summerfield Cinemas all said on their websites Monday that they plan to reopen on Wednesday. Already, the Roxy and Airport theaters have tickets for sale for “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Nobody,” starring Bob Odenkirk. Summerfield has tickets for “Nomadland” and “Mank,” both contenders for Academy Awards.
“For the ‘Godzilla’ movie, we’ll have running on six screens at the Roxy and five at the Airport,” said Dan Tocchini, chief executive officer of Santa Rosa Entertainment Group, which owns all three theaters. The company also owns Third Street Cinemas in downtown Santa Rosa, which is not scheduled for reopening yet.
Face masks are required inside the theaters, except when customers are actively eating or drinking, according to the theaters’ websites. And the theaters are taking several steps to maintain social distance between customers.
“We started over the weekend, doing deep cleaning and disinfecting all the surfaces,” said Neil Pearlmutter, vice president of Santa Rosa Entertainment Group. “We weren’t able to bring back the whole staff, just 25 employees out of 50, but we definitely extended offers for existing staff to return.”
The past year during the pandemic has been tough on movie theaters, Pearlmutter said.
“I’d call it a 97% revenue loss. None of our theaters were open,” Pearlmutter said.
Some theaters were able to turn things around quickly.
“We actually opened Friday, March 19,” said Taylor Green, general manager of Reading Cinemas in Rohnert Park. The venue brought back nearly half its staff, 20 workers out of 45. “Every single one of them was working here before,” he said.
Alternate rows of seating are closed off, with three seats left vacant in between parties of viewers in each row.
“We have assigned seating,” Green said. “We encourage buying tickets online, but tickets can be purchased at the theater with credit cards.” Cash is discouraged, to protect the safety of patrons and staff, he added.
When patrons get refills on drinks or popcorn, they’ll get fresh containers, Green said.
With all 16 of its auditoriums opening, Reading plans in April to resume renting out auditoriums for special screenings for private groups, with up to 20 attendees allowed.
After being dark for a year, the Sebastiani Theatre in Sonoma will reopen on Friday, with limited showings. When it reopens, it will be Sonoma Valley’s sole movie venue. Cinema West’s Sonoma Cinema 9 on Highway 12 closed permanently in October 2020.
The Sebastiani will book up to 15% of its permitted occupancy — which means a 35- to 50-person limit — and seats will be assigned. Rows also will be physically blocked off to ensure compliance.
Cinema West’s Boulevard 14 Cinemas in Petaluma will reopen Wednesday with “Godzilla vs. Kong” and other new films. The company will follow health safety protocols set by the National Association of Theater Owners, as will other movie theaters across the county.
“It’s really unfortunate that many of the employees we had when COVID hit eventually had to move on to other employment,” said Dave Corkill, Cinema West’s CEO. “We were only able to hire back a few, and we’re hiring and training a new crew of 20. We had 40 before the coronavirus shut us down.”
Despite the trials of the past year, Corkill remains optimistic about the future.
“Movie theaters historically have weathered every storm,” he said. “I expect movie theater attendance to pick up and for business to improve over the next few months.”
In Sebastopol, the Rialto Cinemas has not made a decision about reopening, director Ky Boyd said.
“While I am encouraged that other theaters are getting ready to re-open, we are not quite ready to re-open at Rialto Cinemas yet,” Boyd said Monday. The CDC’s announcement about a possible fourth wave of the coronavirus “gives us cause to proceed slowly and with caution,” he added. “We look forward to welcoming audiences back to the movies when it is safe for both moviegoers and our staff to do so.”
You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.
Airport Stadium 12, 409 Aviation Blvd., Santa Rosa. Reopens Wednesday. santarosacinemas.com
Boulevard 14 Cinemas, 200 C St., Petaluma. Reopens Wednesday. cinemawest.com
Reading Cinemas, 555 Rohnert Expressway W., Rohnert Park. Reopened March 19. readingcinemasus.com
Roxy Stadium 14, 85 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. Reopens Wednesday. santarosacinemas.com
Sebastiani Theatre, 476 First St. E., Sonoma. Reopens Friday. sebastianitheatre.com
Summerfield Cinemas, 551 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa. Reopens Wednesday. santarosacinemas.com
In the movie theaters, face masks are required except when customers are actively eating or drinking, and the theaters are taking steps to maintain social distance between customers.