Landmark Cinemas reopening in Brandon

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This article was published 17/07/2021 (1513 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thanks to the province’s new health orders, Landmark Cinemas in Brandon is reopening its doors to fully-vaccinated moviegoers starting today, offering a full slate of new summer releases.

This includes such movies as “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” “Black Widow” and “A Quiet Place: Part II.”

Unvaccinated children under 12 years of age can also attend the theatre as long as they are accompanied by fully vaccinated members of their household.

Landmark Cinemas CEO Bill Walker said Friday he’s excited to be able to provide this service in the Wheat City once again, since the theatre has been closed to the public since November 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic.

“To be able to open for anyone, to bring back our staff, to get our management teams back doing something that they love instead of just serving takeout and delivery food, it’s a good day for us.”

However, Walker remains critical of the province’s current health orders, which require all moviegoers to provide proof of vaccination before entering these facilities, which can only operate at 50 per cent capacity. He believes that these protocols are excessively restrictive, especially when locations such as gyms, restaurants, shopping malls and grocery stores are not bound by the same kinds of measures.

“Theatres have been demonstrated and proven to be one of the safest venues you can go, because of that distancing we provide, because of the independent HVAC, because of the way we can separate showtimes to never create congestion,” he said.

“It’s just been proven to be a really safe activity amongst all of the other things you can do right now.”

On top of cutting into their bottom line, Walker said the health orders also add another operational obstacle employees must overcome on top of getting theatres back up and running.

For example, he anticipates the process of purchasing tickets online may cause confusion for patrons who aren’t privy to the specifics of the new health orders.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have (vaccination screenings) integrated into our website,” he said. “So people will be able to buy tickets, but then if they arrived at the theatre and didn’t have proof of vaccination we would have to provide a refund.”

Walker also clarified that moviegoers who don’t have a Manitoba health card — and therefore don’t qualify for an immunization card or QR code — will be able to enter the theatre if they provide their vaccination record or any other proof of immunization.

In the lead-up to this weekend, the fully immunized requirement for movie theatres has forced Landmark Cinemas to delay the reopening of their theatre in Winkler, since that community’s vaccination rate is only hovering around 23 per cent, compared to a larger provincial rate closer to 60 per cent.

“We asked ourselves the question of, ‘Do we have enough customers?’” Walker said. “So we just decided to wait at least a week to assess how things go this weekend and then revisit that decision.”

Looking ahead, Walker hopes the province relaxes these health orders sooner rather than later, since he views the current measures as excessively punitive to Landmark employees, management and average moviegoers alike.

But for right now, Walker hopes that fully vaccinated Brandonites enjoy returning to the theatre this weekend, especially after enduring such a long period of watching movies exclusively from home.

“We strive to try and make them feel welcomed and comfortable and I think it’s just a great place to start that journey back into going out into the public spaces again,” he said.

Westman movie fans who haven’t been fully vaccinated yet may also want to seek out certain outdoor theatre-going experiences to satisfy their July movie fix.

For example, Killarney’s Shamrock Drive-In will be screening “Raiders of the Lost Ark” through the weekend, “Mission Impossible” July 23-25 and “Sonic the Hedgehog” July 29-31.

Plus, the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba is set to host an outdoor screening of “Wonder Woman 1984” in the Keystone Centre parking lot in Brandon July 23 and 24 starting around 9:30-10 p.m.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson