Next week, Columbians will be able to watch movies in a Main Street cinema for the first time since it closed due to COVID-19 in March.
The Nickelodeon Theatre, the city’s lone arthouse theater, will reopen on Dec. 11 to show a diverse slate of holiday-centered movies through the end of the month, screening “Elf,” “Friday After Next,” “A Christmas Story,” “Polar Express” and “Gremlins” during its first weekend back in action.
The Nick joins a scant array of movie theater options available at the moment. With Regal Cinemas closed nationwide, Columbia's AMC theaters and the Spotlight Cinemas location on St. Andrews Road remain in operation, reinforced by outdoor options such as screenings at Segra Park.
The move, announced via social media on Dec. 3, comes as coronavirus case numbers continue to spike in South Carolina and across the nation, but Anita Floyd, executive director of the Columbia Film Society, which oversees the theater, said her team feels they can keep audiences safe.
“We feel like we have a very strong plan,” she posited. “It’s certainly a conservative one.”
“We’re voluntarily keeping our capacity to 25 percent,” Floyd elaborated, “so that gives plenty of opportunity for social distancing. We’ve got a careful plan for that. We’ll have people being seated to make sure that that happens.
"And obviously, the most important thing for any of us anywhere is to wear a mask, so that’s what we’ll be asking our patrons to do," she added. "Some of the things that put you at risk are when you’re vocalizing, and obviously we’re a no-talk theater, so these are things that at least we have some advantages compared to folks who are other places.”
Masks will be worn at all times by staff, and by audience members, too. The only exception is when attendees are actively eating or drinking items from the limited menu of concessions, and staff members will be around to remind anyone having trouble with the rules.
All tickets will be online-only, and buying concessions will be a cashless and contactless transaction, with guards installed at the counter. Hand sanitizer stations will be distributed throughout the theater, and guidance will be provided for social distancing throughout common areas and while waiting for the restroom.
As to why now is the time to get people back in the theater, Floyd emphasized the comments the Nick received from its regular guests.
“We have had our protocols developed as early as late-summer,” she said. “And it’s a hard decision. Just like closing was up to us, opening is up to us. So we worked with the board, and we had a lot of anecdotal feedback from our members that there were folks that were looking to come back and enjoy film in the theater, so we just thought that we would go ahead and try and see what the response (is). And even with people basically starting to find out yesterday, we’ve gotten some pretty good ticket sales for our limited capacity.”
While the Nickelodeon is taking exhaustive precautions against spreading the coronavirus, the consensus among experts remains that outdoor gatherings are preferable to indoor ones.
“In an outdoor area, if the coronavirus was emitted into the area, there’s breezes that come by and circulating air that would make it less likely for it to infect an individual in that area compared to the same type of exposure that’s in indoor air, where they stay in circulation longer and enhance the likelihood of infecting an individual,” Dr. Anthony Alberg, the epidemiology and biostatistics chair at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, told Free Times in September.
Below is a list of protocols and guidelines the Nickelodeon provided, which it is sharing with audiences before they arrive at the theater:
What we have done to prepare the theatre for you
- Limited seating to 25 percent capacity
- Provided hand sanitizers throughout the theatre
- Installed flexi guards at concession counter, usher stand and box office areas
- Installed social distancing floor markers in all common areas and restrooms
- Developed a cashless system for tickets and concessions.
- Nickelodeon Theatre staff and volunteers will wear a face mask at all times
- Nickelodeon Theatre staff will perform frequent cleaning before, during, and after every screening.
- Staff will screen all patrons for fever upon arrival.
What we ask you to do so everyone is safer.
- If you are feeling ill, please stay home. We will make arrangements for you to see a show at another time!
- Purchase tickets online, in advance of arriving at the Nick.
- Wear masks in all areas of the theatre except when eating or drinking.
- Practice social distancing in the common areas and theatres — Ushers will assist you to find seats in the theatres.
- Promptly proceed to your theatre once you have checked in at the will-call stand and been screened for fever — You will order concessions from your seats and we will bring them to you!
- Evaluate your own risk before attending a screening.
