AMC Theaters Won't Make People Wear Masks When They Return Because They Don't Want To Be Political...Wait, What?

“We didn’t rush to reopen,” AMC CEO and president Adam Aron said in an interview with Variety. “There were some jurisdictions in some states, such as Georgia and Texas, that allowed people to reopen theaters in mid-May. We opted to remain closed, so we could give the country time to get a better handle on coronavirus. We wanted to use this time to figure out how best to open and how to do so safely.”

“We did not want to be drawn into a political controversy,” said Aron. “We thought it might be counterproductive if we forced mask wearing on those people who believe strongly that it is not necessary. We think that the vast majority of AMC guests will be wearing masks.

First things first, SO happy to hear that AMC is even re-opening at some point at all. There were so many rumors when the lockdown started that movie theaters were going to be sunk. AMC in particular has been rumored to be in trouble or possibly acquired by Amazon. I am a guy who loves my couch. A bit of a home-body in general. I rented "King Of Staten Island" last weekend on demand. $19.99. Honestly, I felt a little cheated even though I liked the movie. $19.99 to have the exact same experience I always have which is my TV, my couch, my hands in my pants. It's not as good as going to the theater and getting over-priced popcorn, candy,  the monster screen and good sound. I might as well have thrown on the AMC channel 171 and watched Gladiator or A Few Good Men for the 79th time. I hope there is always a demand for that movie theater experience. It's also relationship date auto-pilot. Run out of date ideas? Well there's always a new movie to see and going to the theater always counts as a date. 

Having said ALL of that...this CEO sounds like a fucking idiot. You think compelling people to wear a mask is going to seem more political than saying they don't have to? Buddy...wake up. You publicly state that your decisions on masks at the theater was at least somewhat politically motivated, even if you are trying to avoid politics, well you just made your stance 10x more political. Just don't say anything. I wear my mask to the grocery store because they ask you to. I am not out there thinking that my grocery store is some sort of leftist political shill. All he did by issuing this statement is piss off, at minimum, half of his potential audience and at worse make his theaters which already have sticky floors and dirty bathrooms come off as more gross. I think it is pretty clear at this point that nobody knows dick about Coronavirus, how to contain it, what the future looks like, what we should do, how we should live, etc. All he has to say when asked this question is "I don't fucking know, but the risks associated with wearing masks are at least probably 1% lower than the risks associated with not wearing masks so we are going to wear masks until we get concrete information, no further questions, good bye, come see Mulan in July". That would be it. Problem solved. Moving on, don't be an idiot.