Tobago MovieTowne reopens on Wednesday

After closing its doors in January 2022, MovieTowne Tobago announced it will reopen on March 30.

The cinema was put up for sale in July 2021 after it closed its door several times over the past two years owing to covid19 restrictions.

MovieTowne owner Derek Chin previously told Newsday that the franchise’s Tobago cinema had not been profitable and he was forced to explore his options. Chin said the impact of the covid19 pandemic on the cinema industry and the general decline in the Tobago economy also informed his decision.

But in a Facebook post on Tuesday, Movie Towne Tobago invited the public to view all the latest action-packed and fun movies from Wednesday.

When contacted for a comment Chin said, “I had that branch closed for a while because of the safe zone situation because a lot of the Tobagonians were not vaccinated so the number of people to come to the cinema was depleted or less. We decided to hold back until the government lifted the restriction on safe zone. That gave us the necessary go ahead for us to try again and try to make back up in light of good movies and the SEA on Thursday.

"We want to give the kids in Tobago the opportunity to come out to the movies and other specials for them.”

MovieTowne was forced to close all its branches on March 18, 2020, six days after TT recorded its first covid19 case. It reopened on November 23, 2020 with restrictions on the sale of food and drinks.

But in April 2021 MovieTowne Tobago was closed with immediate effect. Chin told Newsday the existing arrangements at that time were unprofitable to the organisation.

As other branches were allowed to operate as safe zones to vaccinated patrons in October 2021, the Tobago branch remained closed.

In November 2021 the theatre was reopened as a safe zone but was it closed soon after owing to the low vaccination rate in the Tobago population.