Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) has announced that theatres across the country will now reopen on September 11, following months of shutdown.
CEAN broke the news via its Instagram on Monday, in a development that would end months of a shutdown which the federal government enforced in March to curb COVID-19 spread.
It wrote;
Hip! Hip! Hurray! WE ARE BACK! Visit any Cinema near you from September 11th! We cannot contain our excitement.
The announcement comes few weeks after entertainers in the movie industry expressed displeasure over the continued closure of cinemas in the country, despite the restart of operations in other sectors.
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Patrick Lee, the chairman of CEAN, also speaking on the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown, had said the industry was losing N1 billion on a monthly basis, rendering staff jobless.
He stated;
We do not have a situation whereby we have 100, 200, or 500 people in the same place at the same time because of the nature in which cinemas operate. We promise to give room for social distancing, 50 percent hall occupancy, use of facemask, hand sanitisers and we have made provision for air conditioning systems that would pump in oxygen.
Lee stressed;
We’ve seen other aspects of the economy that are already opened and we have put enough safety protocols in place to ensure, when our customers return to watch movies, they are safe. We have lost over N1billion every month that we have been locked down. And it is over N6billion now in six months. Most of our staff are currently unemployed.
The President added;
There are over 20,000 that depend on the industry in terms of supplies and those who work with artisans. We are at the point of bankruptcy, we want the government to help us to reopen.
