As Idaho moves into stage 3 of the reopening process, movie theaters are now allowed to reopen. This includes Rexburg’s Paramount 5.
The theater had to close its doors at the end of March after Governor Brad Little issued a stay-at-home order.
But despite the order, Paramount 5 brought in some income by selling their concessions on delivery apps, like DoorDash.
Now, as Idaho moves into stage 3, Governor Little gave the go-ahead to movie theaters to reopen—with restrictions.
Brendan Andrews, one of the owners of Paramount 5 and Teton Vu Drive-In (which was able to stay open because people watched the movies from their cars), and the President of Paramount Twin Inc., said they plan on spacing out movie-viewers in theaters, as well as spacing out showtimes to limit the number of people in the lobby.
Due to many new movies getting pushed back because of COVID-19, the theaters plan to show some classic movies before the new releases cycle back in.
“We've had to rely on a few independent films, some may not know as well over the last few weeks...but then we'll be going into probably six weeks of popular and classic films,” Andrews said.
Andrews also said they were happy when they got the clearance to reopen, but at the same time, he said the recovery for theaters is going to be a long process.
“Our recovery in the theater business... is going to be a lot longer than restaurants or some other places,” Andrews said. “They have control of their product, we don't.”