Will Hilton Head movie theater survive COVID-19? ‘It’s scary,’ co-owners say
Larry and Lucie Mann were shocked to see bowling alleys reopen in South Carolina earlier this month.
The co-owners of Park Plaza Cinema on Hilton Head Island thought that if people were allowed to bowl again amid the coronavirus pandemic, they would probably be able to catch a film, too.
Bowling was permitted in the Palmetto State starting June 12. But the couple’s movie theater next to Sea Pines’ main gate remains shuttered.
“We don’t know how long we can keep this up and not make revenue,” said Lucie Mann, 60, who fears their theater, which has become a staple of island life for residents and visitors, could be forced to permanently close.
Gov. Henry McMaster has reopened most businesses deemed non-essential since he first ordered them closed in late March, as COVID-19 cases mounted.
Movie theaters have yet to get the green light, though. And the Manns are worried that McMaster’s OK won’t come soon enough.
“We’re already way upside down. We’ve used up a lot of our savings. I guess you would say reserves. We’re at the end of the line here,” Larry Mann, 67, told The Island Packet. “If we’re not open by the end of this month, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
A spokesman for the governor, Brian Symmes, said there were no updates on reopening plans for theaters as of Thursday.
“He will lift the restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so,” Symmes said.
Coronavirus cases have spiked around the state in recent weeks, including in Beaufort County, which on Thursday reported its highest seven-day average of newly confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
“I think they’re kind of putting us under the same (category) as event venues like a concert or football game,” Larry Mann said of the governor’s office.
The Manns have run their independent theater in Hilton Head since 2010. Cosmopolitan magazine once called it the coolest movie theater in the state, noting its luxury reclining chairs and café, which serves beer and wine. The Park Plaza Cinema is the only first-run independent theater in the Savannah region, Larry Mann said.
In late March, as the coronavirus spread across South Carolina, he said movie attendance took a nosedive. Before the state told them to close, the co-owners had already boarded up shop and furloughed their 10 employees.
“The first week of March was still pretty busy,” Larry Mann said. “And then it just really tapered off.”
Since then, they’ve tried to keep in touch with customers. They sold popcorn curbside in May. They let a handful of couples into the cinema to privately watch their own DVDs brought from home for $100.
The co-owners also applied for a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the Small Business Administration, receiving about $45,000 in mid-April to help cover payroll costs.
Yet despite all that, they still face the possibility of having to sell the theater, if it stays closed much longer.
“Financially it’s scary,” Larry Mann said. “We’ve invested literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in our business over the years, and this is the first time I think, other than a week for Matthew or Irma, some of these other hurricanes, that we’ve closed.”
He’s shared with S.C. Rep. Jeff Bradley, R-Beaufort, proposed movie theater reopening guidelines from the National Association of Theatre Owners. Bradley sent those recommendations to state officials overseeing efforts to restart parts of the economy, Larry Mann said.
The Manns said they think theaters can better control social distancing measures than restaurants and other businesses. The couple said the cinema would stagger show times by 30 minutes, allowing staff to clean seats.
Park Plaza Cinema’s luxury seating and ticketing system could be used to keep groups apart, they added.
The movie industry has been battered by COVID-19, with many studios pulling their films out of theaters for the summer.
Director Derrick Borte’s “Unhinged,” a psychological thriller starring Russell Crowe as a road rage-fueled maniac, is set to open July 10 as one of the first movies to hit the big screen since COVID-19 shut down the country.
“Let’s say we were to sell it,” Lucie Mann said. “That would not go over well. … We’ve become a place that feels like home, but better.”
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 2:05 PM.
