When Ontario relaxes its COVID-19 restrictions at the end of the month, movie theatres will be able to reopen at 50 per cent capacity – though the concession stands will remain closed.
Cineplex theatres will be up and running across the province on Monday, January 31, the day the policy changes; in Toronto, TIFF Bell Lightbox will reopen Thursday, February 3. Proof of vaccination will be required, and masks are mandatory for all staff, visitors and guests.
(Cineplex and TIFF have been streaming movies in Ontario, and nationwide, at the Cineplex website and digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.)
In a statement, Cineplex president and CEO Ellis Jacob dissed the province’s continuing ban on snack bars: “Popcorn and the moves go hand-in-hand,” he wrote. “We’ll keep our poppers warm so we are ready for when these unwarranted restrictions lift.”
Eating and drinking in movie theatres requires guests to remove their masks. Health Canada currently advises remaining masked “in shared spaces with people from outside of your immediate household,” especially indoors.
TIFF’s reopening announcement noted that most of its scheduled programming will proceed as planned, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza resuming its 70mm run on February 4 and The Worst Person In The World opening February 11.
The TIFF Next Wave film festival will now take place in April, and the Roy Andersson retrospective has moved to May. But February’s Reel Talk and Secret Movie Club screenings will return to in-person presentations after holding virtual events in January. (Disclosure: I am one of the hosts and programmers of the Secret Movie Club series. No, I will not tell you what we’re showing.)
So yes, we’ll finally be able to see the new Scream and all the awards-season pictures you meant to see over the holidays but didn’t, like Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Just be careful, would you? Omicron’s still highly transmissible, and we don’t want to wind up in yet another lockdown cycle. It’s no fun trying to make these reopening stories feel fresh every six months.
Update: On January 27, the Ontario government revised its restrictions to allow food and drink sales at movie theatres after all, so factor that into your plans.
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