Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Movie the­atres opened their doors yes­ter­day for the first time in months as the Gov­ern­ment re­opens parts of the econ­o­my as safe zones for vac­ci­nat­ed per­sons over the age of 12 years.

At Movi­eTowne, Port- of- Spain, the crowd trick­led in with many movie­go­ers with vac­ci­na­tion cards in hand at the var­i­ous san­i­ta­tion and check­point sta­tions.

Mar­ket­ing man­ag­er Dionne Williams told Guardian Me­dia that pa­trons were com­ply­ing with the safe zone guide­lines.

She said things have been go­ing smooth­ly and it is re­fresh­ing to see the re­turn of pa­trons through their doors.

At Cin­e­maOne, One Wood­brook Place, pa­trons al­so trick­led in this safe zone with vac­ci­na­tion cards.

Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer In­grid Jahra told Guardian Me­dia that, “I think the turnout has been quite healthy con­sid­er­ing all the re­stric­tions and we are look­ing for­ward to hav­ing a sec­ond show­ing in the evening be­cause you know the movie busi­ness is in the evening, so the sec­ond show seems to be fill­ing up nice­ly thus far.”

Cin­e­maOne, which in­clud­ed the Imax the­atre, Gem­Stone cin­e­mas and 4DX cin­e­ma, ex­pects in the week there will be a 4 pm and 6.30 pm show and on the week­end an ex­tra show will be added at 11 am.

She said, “So far, peo­ple have been un­der­stand­ing and they have been com­pli­ant and this is the first day and we will see how it goes along but my cus­tomers have been com­ply­ing.”

Jahra said, “We hope it is not long-term, we hope as the num­bers get bet­ter that we would be able to in­clude our younger au­di­ence un­der 12 years old, we hope that the State of Emer­gency dies a nat­ur­al death so that we can go back to hav­ing a 9.30 pm show or 10.00 pm, we are hop­ing as we get close to be­ing a ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed na­tion we can go back to hav­ing more in­clu­sive movie pa­trons com­ing through our doors.”