I Went to the Movie Theater Next Thing You Know Ive Got This Bumps on My Forearm

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When Amandla Bearden was hired equally a guest bellboy at the newly opened Alamo Drafthouse Movie house in downtown Los Angeles in July 2019, he was thrilled.

"Any time you get to exist effectually movies in any way, it'south a lucky day," says the aspiring actor, who earned a master'south in drama at UC Irvine in 2017. "There's a lot of other stuff people are doing — plumbing, earthworks ditches, construction — and so to do anything that delves into movies is icing on the cake."

Bearden never imagined that just eight months subsequently, in mid-March 2020, the Drafthouse, along with every other picture theater in the country, would shut its doors for more than a year equally a devastating pandemic swept the globe.

For the estimated roughly 100,000 workers employed in motion picture theaters in America, the last year has been an emotional roller coaster, from the financial insecurity and existential feet of the shutdown to the celebration of the reopening as the pandemic has gradually eased over the last few months.

Still, while the box office has recently shown fresh signs of life thank you to the success of "A Tranquillity Place Part II," "F9" and "Black Widow," uncertainty lingers in the exhibition industry as studios increasingly shift their distribution models toward streaming and some moviegoers remain wary of gathering indoors with strangers.

The Times spoke with half-dozen workers at theaters around L.A. well-nigh the difficulties their cinemas — and they themselves — have faced in the last twelvemonth, the new post-pandemic normal and their on-the-ground view of the future of moviegoing.

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A yr in limbo

Bearden: We had all heard about COVID ramping upwardly around the earth. Information technology's nigh like you tin can run across a car accident coming and yous brace for it; you know, nosotros don't take a force field effectually America. So, sure enough, when it seemed similar things were really going to close downward, Alamo mailed out a letter, letting united states of america know we were going to be closed. They gave us a rent exemption letter to evidence your landlord or whoever you lot needed to permit know.

James M. Wood, general manager, El Capitan Theatre: I've worked here for xx years, and I'd dreamed of being the general director, running this g movie palace on Hollywood Boulevard. I became the general manager at the stop of Feb 2020. In my wildest dreams I never thought I'd have to shut the theater downward three weeks into my new job.

Cassie Gratton, general director, Laemmle Glendale and Laemmle NewHall: I was watching the news on Sunday and I heard all movie theaters are closing starting tomorrow. I called my dominate and I was like, "Hey, they just said theaters are done," and he said, "Let me get back to yous." That Mon, I had to come up to the theater and pause everything downwards. It was basics.

The marquee of Landmark'southward Nuart Theatre photographed in April 2020 after the theater shut down.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Jim Nicola, general manager, Landmark's Nuart Theatre: Nosotros had started having guests that were scheduled to appear for Q&As beginning to cancel, and the "Rocky Horror" cast chose not to perform that weekend. So we knew it was getting serious. There was nevertheless some hope that we would get through it just with a express schedule. But and so the news came down that we were closing. That was a sad day, turning off everything in the theater and walking away.

Brenden Perella, theater host, El Capitan Theatre: I was here the last day. Information technology was definitely shocking. You know, you're working, you're decorated, and then out of nowhere it has to stop. Not by your choice or fifty-fifty by the job's choice — just the world was shutting down.

Shelly Bridges, full general director, the Landmark: I remember going grocery shopping that night and the shelves were empty and I'm thinking, "OK, well, I'm not going to accept a paycheck, and I don't know how unemployment works." It was all just bizarre. Each week you're thinking, "Oh, perchance side by side week, maybe side by side week." And it only kept getting pushed further and farther back.

Guest attendant Amandla Bearden wipes down tables between showings at the Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Perella: I piece of work in a skate park for the urban center of Glendale on the side and that'south outdoors, and so for the first couple of months I kept busy working there. And then they decided that it was time to close even outdoor things.

Gratton: My wife works at a vegan eatery chosen the Wild Chive in Long Beach. They had just bought their brick-and-mortar and were set to open up concluding June in the middle of the pandemic. And then I helped them open up the restaurant and started working part time with them. It was a way for me to stay decorated and they needed help, and so information technology worked out.

Nicola: I have ii other managers, and I call back they were a little more productive [during the shutdown] than I was. One self-published a children's book with amazing watercolors; some other learned an effects editing plan. I pretty much spent nigh of my days taking the dogs out for two-and-a-half-hour walks through Cheviot Hills.

Bridges: I started a YouTube aqueduct about unemployment so that I'd have a mode to become that data to my staff without it officially coming from the visitor. Unfortunately, I constitute that a lot of people needed that kind of content, so that did well for me. In some ways, at that place were positives that came out of that yr: people doing projects that they had put off for a long fourth dimension, completing things they had put on the back burner, spending time with family. Two employees wrote novels in the time they were off.

Bearden: I thought, let me merely go ahead and take this fourth dimension, get on unemployment for a infinitesimal and focus on acting, writing, reading. I started reading the "Game of Thrones" books. I was simply trying to put stuff into my creative cookie jar.

James Wood, full general manager of the El Capitan Theatre, poses for a portrait before an afternoon showing of "Blackness Widow."

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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The thrill of reopening and the new normal

Woods: The outset day back, the elation of people coming in the front doors was unreal. I recollect that the thing that really got most people was the popcorn smell. I saw people break into tears when they came back into the theater. At that place was one gentleman who for as long every bit I can remember had been coming with his wife. He brought his wife's ashes with him because he said this was what they did together: get to the movies at the El Cap. It was emotional.

Nicola: People were excited to see us opened. Information technology must accept been a sad sight, driving by on Santa Monica Boulevard for a full year and simply seeing this dark marquee. We opened with a weeklong tribute to films shot in Los Angeles. The offset nighttime was "The Big Lebowski," and information technology was a skilful turnout. Attendance now might be maybe fifty% of where nosotros were before endmost. But it's slowly building back.

Gratton: We definitely cut down on staffing. We're at the bare minimum correct now. All the managers exercise regular duties with the staff: help at the concession or sell tickets or make clean the theaters. But that's kind of the way I've e'er managed. Nosotros're the only theater in Glendale right now; the other theaters, the Studio Movie Grill and the 1 in the Galleria, are not open. So people are really happy and eager to come out.

Bridges: Our guests take been neat. Most people are still wearing their masks, specially on inflow. Some ask, "Am I allowed to take this off?" And we're very happy to say if you lot're fully vaccinated, you lot're more welcome to accept off the mask. Only about people seem to be more comfortable just kind of keeping information technology on. When we showtime opened, it was a little dull but every week we get busier and busier and we're able to call more than and more of our staff back.

Bearden carries potable orders from the kitchen to the auditorium at the Alamo Drafthouse.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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The postal service-pandemic future

Gratton: I honestly think that theaters beingness closed for that long made people realize how much they liked going out and seeing something on the big screen. I think it will start to get busier afterward July, possibly Baronial. And so all those Oscar movies will first coming out in November. I think information technology'due south going to come dorsum on top. It's just gonna take a picayune bit of time for people to trust.

Bridges: I'grand pretty optimistic. I think even when people have the choice to see a movie at home, often they are going to choose to run across information technology in the theater anyway. At home, your cellphone is going to go off and you might look at it, whereas in the theater — at least in our theater — most of our guests are really respectful and there's not that distraction. At that place is simply a certain buzz in the air when you lot're seeing a movie with a group of strangers for the start fourth dimension.

The concessions stand inside El Capitan Theatre on July nine.

(Jay 50. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Nicola: There'south been talk about the death of movie theaters for a while, but they have survived. Y'all can stream all you want, but nothing compares to sitting in a big room in an audience and watching a motion-picture show on a massive screen. There are some things you can't replicate.

Bearden: Unless you lot're Shaquille O'Neal and you lot actually take a movie house at the crib, I don't think there'south annihilation that'due south going to replace that experience, no matter how easily accessible it is. In an odd manner, I think it's going to turn back into a gilt era for film. I remember earlier I started working for Alamo, I was similar, "Dang, people become to the movies in their pajamas, like they're going into the kitchen." Now it's back to being an event: "Let me recollect the homies, let'south get dressed, allow's go a drink." In a weird way, it's cycling back.

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Source: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-07-14/movie-theater-workers-pandemic-reopening

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