Cinemark To Reopen San Mateo County Movie Theaters Friday

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA—One of the world’s largest and most influential movie theatre companies is getting ready to reopen its facilities in San Mateo County for the first time in six months on Friday.

Cinemark confirmed in a tweet Wednesday plans to reopen its doors to the public Friday at the following San Mateo County locations:

• Century 12 San Mateo — 320 East 2nd Ave, San Mateo
• Redwood Downtown 20 and XD — 825 Middlefield Rd, Redwood City
• Century at Tanforan and XD — 1188 El Camino Real, 4th Floor, San Bruno
• Century 20 Daly City and XD and IMAX — 1901 Junipero Serra Blvd., Daly City

The measure comes after San Mateo County moved out of the state's most restrictive coronavirus reopening tier Tuesday, allowing them to resume modified indoor operations at certain businesses.

San Mateo County had been in the Widespread tier, also frequently denoted as Tier 1 or the purple tier, since the new system went into effect due to high case counts and testing positivity rates
relative to their populations.

To move out of the Widespread tier, which replaced the state's coronavirus monitoring list, a county must for two consecutive weeks have fewer than seven new cases per day per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate below 8 percent.

As part of its reopening, Cinemark announced in a news release that it will be surprising moviegoers across the country with special rewards ranging from exclusive offers to Movie Club memberships. To build on this excitement, Cinemark will begin encouraging guests to share their #MovieClubMoments on social media.

According to Cinemark, its theatres are reopening with The Cinemark Standard, which includes enhanced cleanliness, sanitizing and safety measures at every step of the moviegoing experience.

Measures in place include everything from automatic seat-buffering technology and reduced capacities that ensure physical distancing to disinfecting auditoriums between each showtime and requiring masks of all guests and employees.

“The protocols developed by movie theatre owners demonstrate a serious, comprehensive effort to examine every aspect of their operations and reduce risk. Their emphasis on the health and safety of their employees is an indication of their preventive commitment to moviegoer safety,” said Dr. David F. Goldsmith, PhD, occupational and environmental epidemiologist at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.

For the time being, theaters in San Mateo County can reopen at 25 percent capacity or allow up to 100 people, whichever is fewer. In addition, Cinemark said it is staggering showtimes to allow more time for guests to exit and prevent overcrowding in our restrooms, halls and lobbies.

Bay City News, Inc. contributed to this report.