New York Theater Capacity Limits Raised to 33% Starting Monday, April 26

Regal's Union Square location in Manhattan. Image courtesy Regal.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that starting Monday, April 26, movie theaters in the state of New York will be allowed to increase their capacity to 33 percent, up from its current limit of 25 percent.

This announcement applies to all cinemas in New York State—setting it apart from the initial wave of NY cinema reopenings, which excluded New York City. Theaters in New York City were allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity starting on March 5, nearly five months after its New York State brethren. Though the reopening of New York City cinemas was welcomed by the wider exhibition industry, both NATO and NATO of NY were quick to express their hopes that capacity limits would soon increase to 50 percent. No timeline or qualifications have been provided as to further increase in capacity limits for New York theaters.

The initial reopening of cinemas in New York City was followed by a similar move in Los Angeles, where cinemas were allowed to open at 25 percent capacity (with a maximum of 100 people) in mid-March and at 50 percent capacity a few weeks later.

New York theaters’ bump in acceptable capacity from 25 to 33 percent immediately follows the opening weekend of Warner Bros.’ Mortal Kombat, opening April 23. It also comes in the midst of the nationwide reopening of Regal Cinemas, which began on April 2 with select locations and continues throughout the month of April.

Regal's Union Square location in Manhattan. Image courtesy Regal.

News Stories