Mixed bag for cinema operators

TWO of the major cinema chains in TT had different experiences since reopening last week Wednesday with one reporting slow sales while the other reported increasing numbers daily. MovieTowne owner Derek Chin said business has not been good and it has been very quiet.

So far the catchment has been very poor, which is expected, people have their concerns the fear of covid19 and we need to get them to come back to feel a little more comfortable and every day hopefully it gets better, but it hasn’t been any big line-up or rush or anything like that. Of course, we’re hoping as time progresses the patrons will come back, so we’re working towards obviously getting Christmas or the month of December to be as attractive as possible.

He said customers seemed to be comfortable with the protocols put in place by the cinema. Because there aren’t that many people, there’s enough room to sit wherever you want with enough social distancing, so that hasn’t been a problem. Sometimes a whole screen is just two people, that’s what I was told by someone, that they were the only people in the place, so we have to hope it comes back.

In contrast, general manager at the Trincity branch of Caribbean Cinemas 8 Hazel Daniel said sales have picked up daily since the reopening last Wednesday. She said that on the first day of reopening they had between 70 and 80 customers, and this increased every day, with 211 customers on Sunday.

She said both customers and staff have not had any problems following the covid19 policies. They know they have to have their masks on, they have the little stickers on the ground where they’re supposed to stand apart from each other, etc.

The staff are very much aware that when the customer comes in with their mask below their chin they need to tell them that they have to put it on properly before they serve them, etc., and a lot of customers are aware that this is the new norm that if you don’t have your mask on they don’t get service so they behave, we don’t have anyone that has been misbehaving.

Manager Audra-Nicole Rosemain said the customers were satisfied to be able to eat in the cinema.

We sanitise after every single movie and the customers have to sanitise before they enter the cinema, and while they’re in the cinema, when they exit the theatre to come to the lobby to use the bathroom they have to make sure they have their mask on. We have different policies and they are ok with it.”