With the coronavirus pandemic still preventing full-scale cinema openings, Burlington’s Plaza Theater is planning to deliver movies outdoor style.
Pop-Up Movies, a series of classic and newer movie titles, will begin this Saturday night on a two-story, inflatable movie screen erected across the street from the Milwaukee Avenue theater in the parking lot of Reineman’s True Value Hardware. Audio will be broadcast on an FM radio frequency and through outdoor speakers.
The first movie on the schedule is “Onward,” the 2020 Disney Pixar animated comedic adventure who turn to magic to conjure up their late father who had died when they were too young to remember him. The showing begins at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
Pop-Up Movies is intended to bridge the period between the loosening of restrictions on society and the full opening of indoor theaters.
“There is a gap,” said Plaza owner Shad Branen regarding the situation facing theaters. “Businesses can re-open but new movie product isn’t available to us.”
“As COVID-19 began to take hold around the globe,” he explained, “movie studios began pushing back spring premier dates for highly-anticipated films like ‘No Time To Die,’ the new James Bond film, and Disney’s live-action remake of ‘Mulan.’ Once Safer-at-Home measures were put in place, the studios reacted further by halting movie productions.
“A lot of titles we are expecting are not available, and in some cases, are not even finished,” Branen said.
Weighing more heavily is social responsibility in this new day and age. Branen said the consensus among Wisconsin theater owners is to delay openings so safety concerns can be adequately met and the public can feel comfortable going to movies again.
Branen’s solution to the industry’s gap time and COVID-19 safety concerns is the Pop-Up series — taking movies outdoors under the nighttime sky.
Admission will be charged per carload only and limited to allow distance between vehicles; therefore, reservations will be taken only through plaza4.com and Plaza Theater’s Facebook page.
The theater building will be open during Pop-Up Movies for concessions and restroom use but masks and social-distancing measures are requested. For families who don’t feel comfortable entering the building, Plaza staff will deliver movie popcorn and other concession orders to vehicles.
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