AMC Theaters Set 15 Cent Ticket Prices for First Day of Covid-Era Reopening

AMC Theaters will offer throwback movie ticket prices of 15 cents on the day the country’s largest movie theater chain reopens, August 20th, The Associated Press reports.

Movie theaters have been shuttered in the United States since March because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some were set to start opening earlier this summer, but frequent case spikes and the continued spread of the virus forced those plans to change. Regal Cinemas, the second-biggest chain behind AMC, is set to open some of its locations August 21st.

AMC will open just over 100 cinemas in the U.S., which accounts for a sixth of its nationwide locations. Along with offering 15 cent movie tickets, it will attempt to attract customers with a slate of classic films, including Ghostbusters, Black Panther, Back to the Future and Grease (tickets for those movies will be priced at $5 after opening day).

As for the return of new movies to theaters, Disney’s New Mutants is expected to debut August 28th, while Christopher Nolan’s much-beleaguered Tenet is scheduled to open September 3rd (it will be released internationally a week earlier). Other films set to open in August include the Russell Crowe thriller Unhinged and Armando Iannucci’s Personal History of David Copperfield.

AMC plans to slowly open movie theaters where it can after August 20th, and it expects two-thirds of its cinemas to be open by the time Tenet arrives. However, some of the biggest states and markets — including California and New York — have yet to clear movie theaters to open.

To stem the spread of Covid-19 at movie theaters as much as possible, chains like AMC have said they will operate at reduced capacity, require masks and increase theater cleaning.