There’s still one business yet to reopen in Marion County, but its shutdown doesn’t have a specific end date yet.
The Marion Theater has been closed since March 19, and owner Tony Weinedel said he’s hopeful the theater will be open by July 24 for the premier of “Mulan.” The following week Marion Theater plans to debut “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run.” However, Weinedel said nothing is set in stone at this point, and things could change.
Weinedel’s partner, Trisha Brewer, said she’s hoping to have a soft opening in the beginning of July, but that remains uncertain with the current environment.
Marion Theater’s employees are currently working now to deep clean and make some improvements to the theater.
“We’ve just been trying to clean, repair, rearrange, paint and prepare,” Weinedel said.
They have been being paid since the closure because the theater was approved for PPP (Paycheck Protection Program).
“Theoretically, we keep paying the employees, and the government should reimburse us,” Weinedel said.
Weinedel said the bills are piling up while there is no income, and he has no idea how long it might take for the theater to make money again.
At this point Weinedel isn’t sure when the theater will officially open or what kind of restrictions it will have. Between the extra costs of continuously disinfecting, having fewer showtimes to build in more time for cleaning and likely having to limit the capacity, there are concerns for the theater’s long-term prognosis, Weinedel said.
“All the plans I had have had to be remade,” he explained. “We’re fixing the roof, fixing the seats, painting walls, scrubbing and cleaning and disinfecting everything, but it’s going to be a lot more work when we reopen having to clean in between shows thoroughly. It was already a lot more work before we shut down. I wanted to shut down a week earlier than we did.”
The longtime owner said upwards of five times a day he has people in the community stopping him to ask when the theater is going to reopen. It even happened while he was being interviewed for this story outside the front door of the Marion Theater, and he had to explain that he can’t get any new movies right now.
“It’s very disappointing. We lost our whole summer, which is movie time,” Weinedel said. “Once we open, we may have to turn away half of the people that do come to the movies because we’ll probably have to limit our capacity. I don’t know what our limitations are going to be at that time, but with this inevitable second wave they may put us off even more.”
Movie theaters throughout the country have remained closed during the pandemic with only a handful beginning soft openings. The biggest theatre conglomerate in the country, AMC Theatres, had its owner say Wednesday he has “substantial doubt” it can even remain in business. Movie companies themselves have been pushing their releases back, which is why Marion Theater can’t get anything new to show.
“We don’t really have a choice,” Weinedel said. “It’s not me. They won’t give us any movies.”
Weinedel is also concerned about the state of Hollywood following the riots of Los Angeles and what effect they could have on the movie industry, as well as more people likely contracting coronavirus for not social distancing during protests.
