Arts Alive San Antonio

By KATHY MOLGA, Contributor

Despite all the movie choices that are available online these days, there’s nothing like going out to see a movie on the Big Screen. When COVID-19 first shut down businesses in San Antonio, I thought my cinema-going days were over. But not quite.

After being dark for a few months, some theaters started reopening in August, cautiously, at lower capacity, and with the full range of safety measured in place. So, I recently ventured out to see “The War with Grandpa” starring Robert DeNiro, at a local Santikos movie house. I purchased the ticket online, and when I arrived, I only had to show my ticket purchase code on my cell phone to get in. There was no standing in line, no wait time. The place looked sparklingly clean and everyone wore a mask. And there was plenty of social distancing in the auditorium, with some rows roped off to ensure further distancing between parties. I began to relax in my reclining seat and focused on the screen. In fact, Santikos opened only theaters with reclining seats since those automatically provide more distancing.

It’s obvious that the pandemic has dealt a big blow to the movie theater industry. “It perhaps goes without saying that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an unprecedented impact on the world and the movie exhibition industry,” remarked Mark Zoradi, CEO of Cinemark Holdings. “Delays of new film content, operating constraints imposed by varied government authorities, and ongoing health concerns associated with the pandemic continue to challenge a material resurgence in movie going.”

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2020, U.S. box office sales totaled slightly over $2 billion, while during the same period in 2019 they exceeded $11 billion. That’s a whopping 81% drop in ticket sales.  

Before the pandemic forced so many closures, several film-presenting companies operated more or less successfully in San Antonio: AMC, Regal Cinemas, Cinemark and Santikos. Since the pandemic hit, the chains were able to open only a portion of their total properties and, at least one, Regal Cinemas, eventually closed 536 of its cinemas across the U.S. Six of Regal’s San Antonio theaters closed their doors indefinitely.

To make things worse, Hollywood has been shifting its schedule of new movie releases, restricting releases of new films in the past six months. Many newly produced blockbusters, including the premiere of the 25th James Bond thriller, “No Time to Die” and Marvel’s “Black Widow,” will not be released until sometime in 2021. Still, it helped that movies like Warner Brothers’ “Tenant” and “The War with Grandpa” have done very well, despite restrictions and reduced capacity. Though “Tenet” grossed over $250 million since August, the Chris Nolan film cost more than $200M to produce and market, making it a barely break-even production for Warner Brothers. Had this film been released last year, it would have grossed a projected $825 million worldwide. Thus, chances are that presenters will continue to receive movies that are less expensive to produce.

Here is a short list of some of the more expensive productions that are currently being tabled for next year: “The Batman” release has been moved from June 25 of this year to March 4, 2022; “The Beatles: Get Back“ moved from September 4, 2020 to August 27, 2021; “Black Widow” moved from May 11, 2020 to May 7, 2021; ”Cruella” moved from December 23, 2020 to May 28, 2021; “Dune” moved from December 18, 2020 to October 1, 2021; “Fatherhood”, a Kevin Hart movie, moved from October 23, 2020 to April 2, 2021. And there are others, including the much-anticipated new James Bond.

Meanwhile, San Antonio theaters keep on enhancing safety protocols to keep moviegoers comfortable and relaxed. In that effort, they received assistance from The National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) which developed its “CinemaSafe” program with the help of leading epidemiologists and health experts. NATO’s safety alliance consists of some 400 theater companies serving over 3100 locations nationwide.

Santikos Enterprises, which dominates the local market at present, has also implemented  extra measure such as testing all employees every week whether they have symptoms or not. In fact, Santikos is the only chain in the entire country to have this policy, according to CEO Tim Handren.

To bring people back to the movies, each theater chain has designed its own unique promotional deals. Santikos offers several types of discounts to students and seniors, as well as special family night pricing combined with great family friendly choices. Cinemark offers “Discount Tuesdays” and “Reel Family Time” every Monday. AMC now offers a new rental policy, where customers can rent an entire theater for up to 20 people at affordable prices.

The Santikos chain is somewhat of an exception among its competitors since it has become a non-profit following the death of John Santikos who led the company for years and turned it into what it is today. In his will, the former owner gave the bulk of his estate – $605M to the San Antonio Area Foundation (SAAF) for the sole purpose of serving the needs of the community. Since then, the proceeds from both ticket sales and Santikos’ other real estate holdings now fall under the John L. Santikos Charitable Foundation, which is being run by the SAAF. The latter distributes these funds to charitable causes throughout San Antonio. Despite all of the investments that have been made over recent years to improve Santikos theaters, SAAF still has been given more than $53M since John Santikos’ passing. This money has been put to good use, funding educational, arts and sports programs in our community.

Now more than ever, SAAF has recognized that it is important to support local arts and artists through emergency finding. This is why it created the COVID-19 Response Fund, which has funded many small and mid-sized arts and cultural organizations, who otherwise would have had to shut their doors. Nearly $400,000 of emergency grants were awarded to the arts since the onset of the pandemic. Luminaria, Gemini Ink and the Southwest School of Art are some of the many beneficiaries. (The Luminaria grant helped 109 individual artists.)

With so much going on and more or less constant uncertainty regarding the near future, Santikos Enterprises’ CEO, Tim Handren is trying to stay optimistic. “We are hopeful for the future, because we have made it safe for moviegoers to come back to the theater, and our doors are wide open to welcome them safely when they return,” he said. “There is nothing like that moment when the lights go down, the sound goes up and your attention locks on the screen above – except for knowing that just by being there, you’re helping to make San Antonio a better place.”