NYC Mayor Orders Closure of All Movie Theaters and Concert

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio on Sunday ordered the closure of the entire metropolis’s film theaters, small theaters, nightclubs and live performance venues in response to the rising coronavirus epidemic. The closure will take impact on Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET.

In addition, De Blasio will restrict the town’s eating places, bars and cafes to meals take-out and supply.

Some cinemas within the metropolis — together with the Alamo Drafthouse venue in Brooklyn — had already shuttered whereas others that remained open restricted the capability of auditoriums to 50% to implement higher social distancing.

“This is not a decision I make lightly,” he tweeted Sunday night time. “These locations are a part of the center and soul of our metropolis. They are a part of what it means to be a New Yorker. But our metropolis is going through an unprecedented risk, and we should reply with a wartime mentality. We will come by this, however till we do, we should make no matter sacrifices mandatory to assist our fellow New Yorkers.“

The new shutdown will probably worsen the general field workplace image for exhibitors, which suffered the worst weekend in ticket gross sales in additional than twenty years. Even the September 11, 2001 terrorist assaults didn’t cut back viewers turnout as badly.

Exactly how far this weekend’s field workplace drops received’t be identified till noon on Monday, however it’s anticipated to be decrease than the $59.7 million total complete scored on the weekend of Sept. 21, 2001. Numbers may fall so far as $54 million, which was how a lot was grossed on the weekend of January 14, 1998 — the earlier report low. Comparing the field workplace panorama between then and now could be just about unattainable given how a lot has modified within the theatrical market and due to the unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 100 film theaters within the U.S. have already shut down to reply to the disaster, together with venues in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington state.

As of Sunday, New York had confirmed greater than 720 instances of coronavirus and a minimum of one loss of life. Those numbers had been anticipated to climb because the testing of latest sufferers turns into extra widespread