(Seguin) – Today’s movie screenings across the Lone Star State will not be featuring the King Ranger Theater. That’s according to officials of its parent company Hometown Cinemas.
President and CEO Randy Hester says even though movie theaters are among the list of things that can begin to operate today with limited capacity, the theater in Seguin will not be opening its doors to movie fans this Friday.
“We are not going to be open on Friday and the primary reason is there are no new movies available for us to show. The only thing that is available for us will be something you can see on TV. So, given that plus the extreme limitation of 25 percent of capacity, it just doesn’t make it feasible. I’m not going to get into the science of whether it is really safe or not. I’ll leave that to the medical professionals but we’re different than other retailers. Our product is controlled by the movie studios and there is not a new movie being released until July 10 and then one more on the 17th and one more on the 24th. So, we’re kind of stuck without anything that people really want to see,” said Hester.
In addition to not having any blockbusters to show, Hester says the seating in the theaters is also a dilemma. He says with the 25 percent capacity limit per theater room, there is just no way to comfortably seat movie-goers and work toward a profit.
“If it’s an auditorium for 100 people, we can put 25 people in there. Now on top of that, we’ve got to space them apart and in addition to that, the regulation was you had to close every other row. We are doing the calculation right now but we might not even get 25 people in there. So, the way the thing is written, I don’t think they gave much thought to first of all, to movie theaters because we have nothing to show and secondly, when you start putting those sitting restrictions on us, it’s not possible to staff up to serve just a few handful of people,” said Hester.
Now although their movie projectors will not be running, Hester says perhaps their popcorn machines can be ready to go. In an effort to salvage any dollar that it can all while still connecting with its customers, Hester says plans are currently in the works to offer those movie snacks curbside.
“We are experimenting with curbside concession sales starting this weekend at our location in Lockhart because we realize that even though a lot of restaurants are doing curbside, nobody makes popcorn like we do. So, we are going to try to make that available. If it works, then we’ll expand it and Seguin will be the very next place. We want to make sure that we’ve got all of our systems in place and can execute this well and then Seguin will be next. I don’t know if exactly that means next week but we are trying to make it as soon as we can,” said Hester.
Although the wait to watch a movie in Seguin can be as long as mid-summer, Hester is hoping to garner support for the local theater now.
“We are going through the process of working on a new website right now and one of the things that will be featured is a special offer for gift cards where you can get some passes depending on the size of the gift card you buy. We need support because we want to reopen but we want to reopen, obviously, when it’s safe and we want to reopen when it is something that people want to see,” said Hester.
The King Ranger Theater along with Hometown Cinemas’ other statewide locations have been closed since March 20. Many large and small theaters across the state have also made the same decision and are just not able to open their doors at this time.