As Congress and the White House seem poised to adopt some sort of COVID-19 relief bill, the National Association of Theater Owners on Tuesday pushed for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s plan to provide much-needed aid to struggling movie theaters.
The HEROES Small Business Lifeline Act, co-written by Schumer with fellow Democratic senators Chris Coons, Jeanne Shaheen and Ben Cardin, extends the Paycheck Protection Plan created in the first round of relief legislation through March 2021 and expands the Small Business Administration’s debt relief program for up to a year.
For arts and entertainment, the bill also provides dedicated assistance to businesses that rely on large gatherings, including movie theaters, live theaters, concert venues and restaurants — though the exact amount of relief available was not immediately clear.
“The movie theater operators of America are desperate for help from Congress. Without such help, 70% of the theaters in the country could file for bankruptcy or close permanently by the end of the year,” NATO said in a statement. “More than 70,000 jobs could be lost permanently. While many small business theater operators were able to access Paycheck Protection Program loans, given the duration of the pandemic, those funds have been exhausted and theater revenues are still close to nothing. The current rules of the program remain challenging for theaters that are shuttered or doing little business.”
“We are grateful that Senators Schumer, Cardin and Shaheen have included relief for movie theaters as part of the Save Our Stages initiative and that SOS is included in their COVID relief bill. We seek a bipartisan solution for pandemic relief now that would include these provisions to preserve moviegoing in America.”
Democrats and Republicans have been at a stalemate for months over COVID-19 legislation. The two major sticking points have been the amount of federal aid provided to state and local governments and a Republican-supported liability shield for businesses should their employees contract COVID-19.
The HEROES Small Business Lifeline Act is being added to a $2.2 trillion relief plan passed by the Democrat-controlled House last month. However, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing forward on his own $1.6 trillion relief plan that includes the liability shield as he is expected to put it to a vote in the Senate next week.
As studios continue to push major film releases back into 2021, the entire movie theater industry is facing an existential challenge. AMC, the nation’s largest theater chain, has warned that it could run out of money by year’s end, while Regal Cinemas has closed all of its locations nationwide. With the possible exception of Universal’s “The Croods: A New Age,” which is releasing under a special deal with AMC to shorten its exclusive theatrical window, films set for release in October and November have either moved to a release date next year or straight to streaming.