Story by Matthew Whitaker

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During this difficult time where we have to social distance and remain at home, there are things we want to do but can’t. Many businesses have begun to close down because of this quarantine, and because of COVID, cinema has never been the same. Movies such as Black Widow, Godzilla vs King Kong, James Bond: No Time to Die and so many more have either been pushed back or have immediately been switched to physical, which are the movie cases with the disc inside, or digital movies where you buy online and watch on your mobile device.  

Santikos is a movie theater company; they are in charge of theatres like Casa Blanca, Silverado 16, and many more. Santikos has been open since May 2nd and they have done everything in their power to make sure that movies are safe to enjoy during this pandemic. From people using hand sanitizer to keeping the capacity low, they are making sure no one would be at risk. Andrew Brooks is the Santikos executive of marketing and sales of 3 years. He has promoted theaters and helped with events in all of Santikos movie theaters from birthday parties to group events.  

“The goal of Santikos is for it to remain safe for guests and employee and make sure employees have jobs to come to,” Brooks said

When every business was struggling to reopen, like restaurants and shops, Santikos had an interesting and unique way of how they decided to reopen.

 “The decision to reopen would fall on our employees,” Brooks said. “It was because of that decision for the employees being, saying they felt safe about the job, that Santikos reopened its doors.”

Movies have been around for years and people have fallen in love with cinema, from the drive-in movie theaters to a building with air conditioning. Adam Rocha, The A/V teacher at our school, went to the movie theaters 2 or 3 times a week, but since COVID, Rocha along with many others have not been able to see a movie. So instead of going to the movies, people will buy digital or physical copies 

“Movie theaters will be a thing of the past,” Rocha said. 

 Regal Cinema began to close 536 of its theaters after two months of reopening.