RE:If covid doesn't kill theatres...This is a complex issue on multiple levels.
First, there is the obvious Covid issue. Much as I can now see an end in sight with the recent vaccine news, and it would be soooooo easy to think people will just flock out the the movie theatres again, there is also a bigger change happening in viewership patterns, and this couldd signal a longer slower death of the movie theatre than Covid ever could.....but an eventual decline and death all the same.
So imagine a big movie that's coming out. The impetus to go out to the movie, (outside of something to do) was that you didn't want to wait 3 months to be able to see the movie on your own. But 17 days? Sheesh, it takes most of us that long just to get organized to see the first run movie in the first place, or we don't want to fight the crowds, or it just didn't fit into our schedule. But at the end of the twists and turns, am I happy enough just to wait 17 days? Unfortunately for the theaters, the answer is yes. And with that answer, you have decline.
But wait, it's worse.
There is an evergrowing number of people buying cheap streaming boxes and watching 1st run movies at home. No wait. It's certainly the way of the millenials or younger, but an older demographic is also catching on. It's free. It's immediate. Illegal or grey at the very least? Absolutely. But much like the recordind industry, they had to quckly re-invent delivery, lest they be left in the dust of napster and every other incarnation since then.
But wait, it's worse again. Covid may have longer lasting impact than just the virus itself. It may have fundamentally changed how we WANT to view things. Curling up. Good food. Good friends. Do I really want to go out, stand in line, pay for vastly overpriced popcorn? Or has Covid taught us how to do otherwise, and maybe otherwise really isn't that bad after all. We don't know yet, but I do sense there will be lasting changes. Just like we are much more inclined now to buy online. We could go out to the stores, but we've learned how easy and efficient it is to just do it all from home.
I'd love to buy CHX, but I don't think I can. There's just too many wildcards out there, or red flags that are not resolved. There's more reason why this stock is still just crushed, than Covid alone could ever explain.