By Abb Jones
The Reelness

The only certainty during our current global coronavirus pandemic is that nothing is certain anymore.

With movie studios Warner Bros. and Disney again recently postponing the releases of blockbuster films Tenet and now Mulan, AMC Theatres, the world’s largest theater chain, says it is again pushing back its planned July 30th U.S. re-opening date to mid-to-late August.  With no new content from movie studios, expect other American theater chains to follow.

And even hope for that August date is tenuous at best, with COVID-19 infections now spiking across the United States. The nation makes up more than a quarter of the 15.6 million record infections around the globe and 37% of the world’s current 5.4 million active infections.

Thursday night Paramount announced it is delaying A Quiet Place 2, which had been rescheduled for a September 4th 2020 release, to April 23rd, 2021. Paramount is moving Top Gun: Maverick, the highly anticipated sequel to the 1986 Tom Cruise megahit, from December 23, 2020 to July 2, 2021.

AMC says approximately a third of its cinemas in Europe and the Middle East are already open and operating normally. The theater chain says it recently implemented a new health and sanitation program, requiring customers to wear masks, upgrading ventilation systems and performing stringent cleanings between showings.

But none of that matters as long as the coronavirus pandemic rages on in the U.S., with few new films from the Hollywood movie studios and with moviegoers remaining wary about gathering indoors.