Is It Safe to Go Back to the Movie Theater?
As COVID-19 case numbers drop, hospitalizations decrease, vaccine administrations increase, and blockbuster season approaches, Americans who think big movies deserve a big screen are wondering when they can dare return to theaters. The closest deadline for many is the March 31 release date of Godzilla vs. Kong: If you’re going to watch a skyscraper-sized monkey punch a battleship-length lizard, you probably want to do so on a screen the height of a McMansion.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke for philistines everywhere in August when he that movie theaters were “not that high on the list of essentials,” and signaled that he would keep them closed in America’s largest city indefinitely. And when interviewed health experts back in September about moviegoing, they implicitly took Cuomo’s side: None advised buying a, expecting Americans to abstain from social contact is unrealistic. Marcus “a harm-reduction approach [that] acknowledges that people will take risks for a variety of reasons, including a basic need for pleasure.” In that conceptual framework, theaters for some may represent a worthwhile risk.
