Despite MovieTowne crowds, Chin says cinemas getting raw deal

MOVIETOWNE owner Derek Chin estimates that about 5,000 people were at its Invaders Bay, Port of Spain, branch on Saturday night.

The seating capacity is actually 2,400 but it has been restricted to half of that by the Ministry of Health as a measure to slow the spread of covid19.

Photos and videos began to circulate on social media of a large crowd near to the box office at MovieTowne on Saturday night.

The cinema mogul told Newsday, however, that given its strict seating capacity of 1,200, a considerable portion of the crowd – most of whom were teenagers – were there to buy food and lime, something he is not ready to discourage.

Some believe many of the teenagers present did not have a ticket for the recently-released Godzilla vs Kong movie, which was promoted by MovieTowne.

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith said he was at Movietowne with five police patrols. What happened at MovieTowne was "very difficult for the police to control," he said, since the vast majority of people thee were minors, many of whom had been dropped off by their parents and were unable to disperse and go home on their own.

Both Griffth and Chin called on parents to be more responsible, and not use MovieTowne as a babysitting service.

But the box office does sometimes attract crowds, Chin admitted.

"You see, the box office goes and comes. Sometimes it builds up when a movie is a half-hour away and then it just dies off and it starts back again. It's not something that is constantly like that," he said.

Otherwise, he said, "Of course, there are so many people. We do have the (physical) distancing on the ground. I mean people will always push a little higher.

"Once you're wearing a mask, I don't see it being a problem. And, of course, we try to process as fast as we can. We do have a self-service terminal, too, which hopefully helps."

Newsday asked Chin about MovieTowne's advertised Monster Combo deal – an offer, including movie tickets, food and drinks for $160 – and whether the promotion was necessary, given the limited seating capacity, potential to draw large crowds and the fact that the school vacation had started.

Chin said, "We try to give them value for their money. This time is very (economically) sensitive. We've done (specials) for children's movies, you know, and my strategy is to get people back out, close to the norm, within reason.

"We've been open six months and you haven't heard anyone say, 'Oh, I went there and I got sick.' Nothing like that has happened.

"And that's the worldwide situation – cinemas are getting a raw deal because people say it's indoors and they don't understand that it's indoors in all the places, malls, supermarkets and so on.

"Once you follow the protocols, self-distance, wear your mask, sanitise, you take temperatures, I think you're as good as you can be."

Protocols, he added, differ inside the cinemas and outside in the open, where people gather.

Asked if he felt concern about the potential for public pressure to influence health and other authorities and further limit seating at cinemas or again close them altogether, he replied, "Well, if they close down cinemas, they have to close down beaches, too, right? It's the same thing.

"You're dealing with a lot of ignorance. That's the problem. These phenomena (of crowds) happen three times a year, and I can go back to the last one and show you a big picture on the front page.

"Why I call it a phenomenon is that it's a one-off event. What happened in this case is like a perfect storm. Children are all cooped up. They want to get out. Two, you have the school ending on Friday (to start the) Easter holidays.

"You have a big movie called Kong which everyone loves.

"So when you put it all together, yeah. But not everyone came to the cinemas."

He said the previous highest crowd estimated at Movietowne since December was about 4,000.

"But who benefits? Of course, all the fast food (outlets) and all the (mall) tenants benefit, which is who we want to benefit, because everything is so hard right now.

"We started, of course, back in December to get people to come out and feel comfortable, and it appears to have worked.

"The first thing they say is, 'Movietowne only want to make money.' And that's wrong.

"Of course we want to make money. But at the same time, we have salaries, we have banks, we have landlords, people to pay.

Chin took offence at social media comments describing the crowd and the complex as "ghetto," saying, "We welcome all the good young people of all walks of life. We show people respect.

"Just because people aren't who you want them to be, does not mean they are 'ghetto.' They aren't bad kids. Ninety-nine per cent of them are good kids."