Penn Hills Cinemas eyes Aug. 21 for reopening; films to be determined

A cinema in Penn Hills has decided to welcome back movie-goers starting on Aug. 21, the owner said Monday.

Penn Hills Cinemas, owned and operated by Paul Looker, has been closed since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He is still unsure what films his four-theater movie house will show, but he hopes to poll his loyal customers soon on social media to see what flick would draw them back.

He expects a “rocky start” the first week he reopens because he’ll likely only show one classic movie on a screen.

Indoor movie theaters in Pennsylvania were allowed to reopen when counties moved to the green phase. Allegheny County moved to the green phase June 5.

Looker hasn’t opened because of some indoor painting he started in April.

However, many movie theaters remain shuttered as studios have postponed release dates for films originally scheduled to show earlier in the year. If nothing changes, Marvel’s “The New Mutants” would be the nation’s next movie to be released to theaters Aug. 28, Variety reported. Christopher Nolan’s $200 million blockbuster “Tenet” is expected to hit theaters Sept. 3.

Looker hopes to show those movies in his theater but said it all depends on the studios.

“Whether or not I can even have a movie, I don’t even know,” he said. “The release system has changed so much.”

He said studios announced new releases would come July 17, but then that date was pushed to July 21 and again to mid-August.

Until then, movie theaters have been forced to stay creative in order to keep the lights on. Some theaters, such as the Waterworks in Aspinwall, have let 20 people rent out a theater to watch classic films.

At Penn Hills Cinemas, Looker has offered curbside popcorn and snack sales since the end of April.

Looker said the snack sales aren’t enough to cover bills but have performed better than he anticipated. Once Paycheck Protection money ran out after about a month, he needed to lay off three employees.

To keep himself occupied through the pandemic, Looker decided to give the inside of the theater a facelift.

“I bought 84 gallons of paint, and I’ve done all the manual labor I could stick in to four months,” he said.

The theater’s low ticket prices will remain once he reopens Aug. 21. The only difference he foresees is not continuing his weekly Tuesday special, where customers could bring their own containers to fill up with popcorn. That will depend on what the Pennsylvania Health Department deems appropriate, Looker said.

As far as maintaining social-distancing guidelines and limiting theaters to 25 people at a time, Looker said it won’t be a problem. Because the facility is on the smaller side, he said he would limit it to 20 people anyway.

To Matt Bridge, 37, of Carrick, Aug. 21 sounded like a great reopening date. Bridge said he’s been a loyal customer since he was a kid – and he has rented out space at Penn Hills Cinemas for private movie viewing parties regularly since 2013.

“I love the low ticket prices. And concessions are really reasonable,” Bridge said. “For me, it’s just a local business I choose to support. It feels like going to a movie whenever I was a kid.”