Before the shutdown order went into effect last March, I saw Bloodshot at an AMC Theatre Saratoga. The lobby was empty as people stayed away in droves. I sat with two dozen people inside an IMAX theater. Everyone kept six feet away from each other. After eight long months, I saw Tenet at an AMC Theatres Eastridge. The lobby was empty as people stayed away in droves. I sat with a dozen people inside an IMAX theater. Everyone wore masks and kept six feet from each other. Movie theaters are once more opened in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.
AMC Theatres Eastridge
My friend and I went over to Eastridge Mall to see Tenet in IMAX. The first thing we encountered entering the lobby was to fill out a contact form. The requested info includes name, phone number, party size, movie name, and movie time. If there’s a confirmed coronavirus case, the county health department can notify people.
Concessions weren’t open and food items from outside weren’t permitted inside. I brought a couple of Handi-Wipes in case concessions was open to wipe my hands before eating. AMC still owes me a birthday popcorn and drink from summer.
Beyond the half-dozen employees at the box office, the entire place was empty. AMC Eastridge is a long hallway from the front entrance to the last theater. I went from one end to the other without encountering any other customers. All the doors to the theaters were wide open. Some were blaring sounds from a movie.
Inside The Theater
Since concessions weren’t open, we got to our seats a half hour before show time. We used the entourage feature in the AMC app to reserve our seats together. The reservation system blocked out the surrounding seats in the app with X’d out squares. Nothing was playing on the big screen before show time.
Show time started three minutes late at 18 minutes past the hour. The AMC intro came on to celebrate 100 years of watching movies. A bit ironic considering that 100 years ago the Spanish flu was the pandemic of the day.
There were two trailers before the movie: Dune and Wonder Woman 1984. Dune was coming out for Christmas but now scheduled for next summer. Wonder Woman got booted to Christmas after Tenet “failed” at the box offices in September. The Christmas date is still tentative and could change again.
The AMC outro wrapped up with the usual admonishment not to ruin the movie for others.
Watching Tenet
As for Tenet, I had no problems keeping up with plot. Keep in mind that there are three timelines running in parallel at the same time.
- a forward timeline
- a reverse timeline
- a cleanup timeline
The only character who confused me was Kat played by Elizabeth Debicki. She turned out to be a wildcard factor who could blow up the timelines by her actions. I enjoyed the movie.
As for wearing a mask during the movie, it didn’t bother me once I got into the movie. I wasn’t concern about catching the coronavirus since everyone took the same precautions. I was more at risk for the coronavirus when masks weren’t required eight months ago.
Visiting Restroom
After the movie, I stopped off to visit the main men restroom. The restroom was so clean that it was unbelievable. On a typical Sunday evening, the men restroom is anything but clean. With the coronavirus keeping people away, it’s easier for the staff to keep the restroom clean.
AMC Theatres Saratoga
A week after my friend and I was Tenet, we went over to AMC Theatre Saratoga to see Goldfinger. There were a few differences from our visit to Eastridge.
- We had our temperatures checked after filling out the contact form.
- AMC resumed their Noovie pre-show with a focus on their app, movies on demand, and Stubs membership.
- Because we stayed through the credits all the way to end, we almost got sprayed with sanitizer on the way out.
Despite the challenges to safe in a pandemic, I look forward to seeing the movies at the theaters.