Morehead Cinemas during a pandemic

Morehead Cinemas has continued to provide entertainment to the Morehead throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remaining opened since June, the cinema has changed their operations like many other businesses during these challenging times, which hasn’t been easy.

“It’s been rough this summer,” said Daniel Totich, general manager of Morehead Cinemas. “I can’t even begin to compare this summer to a normal summer.”

Measures taken to keep the cinema safe include requiring masks, which may be taken off once in the theater, constant disinfecting of amenities, shutting off the water fountain and discouraging loitering in the lobby and arcade.

According to Totich, there has been only one incident near the beginning of the changes involving an unruly patron not wanting to wear a mask.

He says most patrons know what to do by now in order to keep safe.

“We’re at 50% capacity right now, which is why we took the blocks down in the theater,” said Totich. “At 33% capacity, it was okay, but at 50 it’s a little bit harder to leave seats open for families or groups.”

Since the pandemic, Morehead Cinemas has not been receiving new films to show. Over the summer, studios provided older films at reduced rental costs.

Morehead Cinemas is able to show retro films without spending too much money by using a digital hard drive.

“Sometimes that can be kinda expensive during normal business,” said Totich. “They really wanted to see us open and did everything they could to help us out on that front.”

Morehead Cinemas is slowly transitioning towards newer films, such as “Unhinged” and “Words on Bathroom Walls”.

Newer releases will be shown on multiple screens to provide ample seats for audiences, in conjunction with the existing space in the theaters.

“At this point, we’re just going to follow the guidelines as they come out,” said Totich. “Do everything the state asks us to do and do everything we can to ensure the safety of our employees, our customers, everybody.”

The altered schedule for new movies and general info on show times can be found at http://moreheadcinemas6.com

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