Midway Cinema, located at 181 NE Hampe Way in Chehalis, is seen dusted with snow on Monday.
Midway Cinema is officially back open for weekend showtimes, with lower prices and COVID-19 protocols in place to encourage community members to safely make their way back to the movies.
The Chehalis cinema reopened Friday, Feb. 5, after being temporarily shut down due to COVID-19 regulations. It was allowed to reopen after the West Region moved into Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Healthy Washington” reopening plan.
“It was a good turnout. I think people want to come back,” said Mark Murin, director of operations for Coming Attractions Theaters.
Midway is part of Coming Attractions’ 16-theater circuit on the West Coast, and it is the first of the circuit’s two Washington locations to reopen. The other theater, Riverside Cinema, is located in Grays Harbor County and needs to rehire staff before it can reopen, said Murin.
Midway Cinema is operating at about half of its staffing capacity, with 10 employees on the payroll working between part time and full time.
“We’re just doing our best to not spend a lot of money, save on payroll,” Murin said.
Midway first shut down due to COVID-19 regulations back in March and reopened on weekends for roughly six weeks in July before another change in regulations shut the cinema down again in November.
The cinema briefly tried curbside concession sales in June, but found that it wasn’t financially feasible to continue.
“Restaurants can do curbside takeout and delivery; unfortunately we can’t,” said Murin.
Midway is limiting showtimes to Friday through Monday.
“We’re just not capable of going back up to seven days a week fully scheduled,” Murin said.
With most major blockbuster movie releases either released directly onto streaming platforms or delayed until March at the earliest, Midway is offering a mix of new movies that people may not have heard of and old favorites.
Last weekend’s offerings included new releases “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “The World to Come,” some titles that have been out for a couple weeks, such as “The Little Things,” “The Marksman,” “The Reckoning” and “Weekenders,” and some titles that have been out a month or longer, namely “Monster Hunter,” “News of the World,” “The Croods: A New Age,” “Wonder Woman 1984” and — in honor of Valentine’s Day — a daily showing of “The Notebook.”
Many of last weekend’s showtimes were canceled due to severe winter weather and unsafe driving conditions, but the reduced slate of showtimes will resume as soon as the weather allows.
Ticket prices are currently $7 for adults and $5 for kids for a recently-released movie, and $5 for all audience members seeing a classic movie.
In addition to the standard showtimes, Midway is also renting out a theater for private screenings for parties of up to 20 people. Email aprivaterental@catheatres.com for more info.
“Normally we wouldn’t be able to have an empty theater,” said Murin, adding that “every little bit helps.”
Current Washington state regulations have venues operating at 25 percent capacity, and Midway is following a program of safety protocols put out by the National Association of Theater called CinemaSafe, which is intended to support a safe return to movie theaters. The CinemaSafe guidelines were developed from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local regulations, and the program includes roughly 3,200 theaters nationwide. Auditoriums are fully disinfected between movie screenings, social distancing is enforced and all theater staff and guests are required to wear masks while up and about. A full list of guidelines is available online at www.cinemasafe.org.
“We’re just trying to protect our guests and our staff,” Murin said.
More information on Midway Cinema
Location: 181 NE. Hampe Way, Chehalis
Phone: 360-740-9600
Website: www.catheatres.com
