Coronavirus Fears Cause AMC to Close Theaters in Italy

Anxiety about the spread of Coronavirus has reached all over the globe, now AMC Theaters is worried about the disease in Italy. Deadline reports that the theater chain has closed almost half of its locations in the country because of concerns. AMC executive Adam Aron said on their 4Q earnings call that 22 out of 46 theaters have been shuttered this week. The reported cases of coronavirus have jumped from 219 earlier this week to a range of 400-615 at the time of reporting. There have been 17 deaths so far as the virus continues to pop up in more and more places around the world.

A large concentration of the closings occurred in Northern Italy, near Milan. But, Aron says, "entities in Milan have reopened to the public, and there's an increasing view in Milan that there might have been an overreaction. We decided to close for a week; that's what all the local government and medical authorities thought was the right thing to do. Milan and its environment aren't on a quarantine or lock down. We did it to cooperate with local government as a precaution."

He would add, "AMC Theatres has no theaters in China, South Korea or Iran" and "the economic impact has been minimal" from the coronavirus. How big of an economical impact? Not much: "between $500K and $1M for a week's closure, which won't be noticed when we wrap up AMC for the year."

Closer to home, North American venues and Northern European locations haven't been affected very much by the closures yet. Aron mentioned that AMC Theaters is taking directions from government officials and medical experts in efforts to protect patrons. There are millions of guests who visit their locations across 15 countries. Other countries have seen the closings of their theaters too as people are wary of these larger people centers right now.

In other parts of Italy, other facets of life have seemingly ground to a halt as well. Schools, cinemas, and other places people gather have decided to close in an effort to curb the spread. The BBC indicates that eleven towns near the center of the country's outbreak have been quarantined. Some have even begun to wonder if this would lead to a recession of sorts for Italy. Next week could be back to the movies, but clearly there are more important matters at hand.

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