Marcus Theatres®, a division of The Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS), is planning to limit seating capacity at its theatres. The change will go into effect as early as today, but the full-scale plan begins Wednesday, March 18 until further notification. With the well-being and safety of guests and associates a top priority, this formal social distancing seating plan helps create space between guests and is in alignment with updated guidelines from health agencies locally and nationally.
“At Marcus Theatres and Movie Tavern by Marcus, we are closely monitoring the evolving coronavirus situation and working under the direction provided by local health agencies,” said Rolando Rodriguez, chairman, president and CEO of Marcus Theatres. “In addition to increased cleaning procedures and guidance from partner experts such as Ecolab, we are now taking an additional precaution of adjusting our seating plan to limit capacity in our theatres. The additional room is intended to provide a more comfortable social distance between guests.”
The ticketing system (in theatres, on MarcusTheatres.com and on the app) will make certain seating unavailable in order to accomplish the additional space between guests. For all locations, seats for sale will alternate – a pair of seats will be available and the next pair will not. To accommodate families, a section of four seats will be sold together in auditoriums that have a minimum of 50 seats.
Beyond this updated seating plan, Marcus Theatres’ practices in responding to COVID-19 prevention follow the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and area health department guidelines. Cleaning procedures and frequency have increased, hand sanitizers have been added, additional cleaning is provided by a third-party service overnight, and theatres will continue to take direction from Ecolab and leading health agencies.
“We are prepared to take additional steps as new information and best practices emerge – all for the benefit of our guests and associates,” added Rodriguez. “In the meantime, we want our guests to feel comfortable and confident that we are providing a clean and comfortable escape to the movies during these stressful times.”
About Marcus Theatres
Marcus Theatres®, a division of The Marcus Corporation, is the fourth largest theatre circuit in the United States and currently owns or operates 1,110 screens at 91 locations in 17 states under the Marcus Theatres, Movie Tavern® by Marcus and BistroPlex℠ brands. For more information, please visit www.MarcusTheatres.com and follow the company on Facebook and Twitter (@Marcus_Theatres).
About The Marcus Corporation
Headquartered in Milwaukee, The Marcus Corporation is a leader in the lodging and entertainment industries, with significant company-owned real estate assets. In addition to its Marcus Theatres division, its lodging division, Marcus® Hotels & Resorts, owns and/or manages 20 hotels, resorts and other properties in eight states. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.marcuscorp.com.
Certain matters discussed in this press release are “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may generally be identified as such because the context of such statements include words such as we “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect” or words of similar import. Similarly, statements that describe our future plans, objectives or goals are also forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties which may cause results to differ materially from those expected, including, but not limited to, the following: (1) the availability, in terms of both quantity and audience appeal, of motion pictures for our theatre division, as well as other industry dynamics such as the maintenance of a suitable window between the date such motion pictures are released in theatres and the date they are released to other distribution channels; (2) the effects of adverse economic conditions in our markets, particularly with respect to our hotels and resorts division; (3) the effects on our occupancy and room rates of the relative industry supply of available rooms at comparable lodging facilities in our markets; (4) the effects of competitive conditions in our markets; (5) our ability to achieve expected benefits and performance from our strategic initiatives and acquisitions; (6) the effects of increasing depreciation expenses, reduced operating profits during major property renovations, impairment losses, and preopening and start-up costs due to the capital intensive nature of our businesses; (7) the effects of weather conditions,particularly during the winter in the Midwest and in our other markets; (8) our ability to identify properties toacquire, develop and/or manage and the continuing availability of funds for such development; (9) the adverseimpact on business and consumer spending on travel, leisure and entertainment resulting from terrorist attacks inthe United States, other incidents of violence in public venues such as hotels and movie theatres or epidemics (such as the Coronavirus, SARs, bird flu and swine flu); (10) a disruption in our business and reputational and economic risks associated with civil securities claims brought by shareholders; (11) our ability to timely and successfully integrate the Movie Tavern operations into our own circuit; and (12) our ability to achieve the additional revenues and operating income that we anticipate from our additional week of operations in fiscal 2020 and certain extraordinary events that will take place in or near Milwaukee during fiscal 2020, such as the Democratic National Convention and The Ryder Cup. Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Theforward-looking statements made herein are made only as of the date of this press release and we undertake noobligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
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