Heading back to the movies? Here’s what to expect at Sacramento region theaters
I remember a time last year when I thought I was never, ever going to go back to a movie theater.
Sit in a dark, enclosed room with 100 people, shoulder to shoulder, munching on popcorn next to coughing neighbors as children yell and cry in the next row for two hours? Yeah, right.
Prior to the pandemic, I was seeing a movie at a theater almost weekly. The last movie I saw before lockdown was “A Portrait of a Lady on Fire” at Tower Theatre, a movie that includes lots of lingering shots of women walking along the seashore being sad and lonely and brooding. There’s something poetic there, I think.
Since then, I’ve been streaming new movies on my laptop. Once, I went to a drive-thru movie theater and it was an OK experience: My roommates and I saw “Tenet” sitting in the truck of an SUV, our knees getting stiff and our ears unable to discern most of the dialogue. Suffice to say, I was ready to be back in a proper movie theater.
Now fully vaccinated, and with a smorgasbord of films slated to arrive this summer on my movie-watching agenda, I decided it was time to head out downtown and catch a flick at my old stomping grounds at Cinemark’s Century DOCO and XD theater. Here’s what the movie theater experience was like, as the COVID-19 pandemic finally begins to subside.
Before going to the movie theater
Almost all the films playing right now were horror-related, but I’m a complete chicken who was already nervous about heading back to the movies so I decided to see a showing of “Cruella” with my partner.
I purchased my tickets the night before to avoid standing in line and ensure I was able to grab seats. Online, two seats are automatically blocked off on either side of the reserved seats, meaning we wouldn’t have to sit directly next to someone else.
At the time I purchased the tickets, only three other groups of two had made a reservation. I got an additional discount because it was Tuesday, bringing the total cost of two tickets to $16.50 (I do not miss the movie theater prices).
A few hours before the show, I got an email from Cinemark with additional safety measures to note — masks needed to be worn at all times except when eating or drinking inside the auditorium, and cash wouldn’t be accepted for snack purchases.
At the movie screening
We arrived at the theater with our masks on about 10 minutes before our 7:10 p.m. showing. The first thing I noticed were massive COVID-19 safety posters hanging on the outside doors. Bright green stickers urging six-foot separation were tacked onto the floors.
Inside, no one was waiting in line at the ticket counter. We walked up to the pair of employees there, both of whom were wearing masks, and scanned the QR code on my phone. They handed us our physical tickets and told us to head downstairs to theater eight.
Then we headed to the concession stand, which have been outfitted with plastic shields (the ticket booth also had this). A worker waved us over to his counter and slipped on his mask as we walked up. Within seconds we had a medium popcorn with light butter and Coke icee in hand, and we were headed down the escalator. The couple in front of us didn’t have masks on.
Inside the theater, we settled into our seats. Clearly, many people had bought tickets in the hours after I had made our purchase. The theater wasn’t crowded, necessarily, but each row had at least two groups of people. In our row, we had a pair of people on our left, and a group of four on our right.
Like almost everyone else in the theater, we slipped our masks off and started munching on our concession goodies as we were bombarded with trailers that repeatedly emphasized the need to see movies at the cinema, the way they’re supposed to be experienced.
After the movie (which was fun!) we cleared our garbage, donned our masks, washed our hands and headed home.
Final thoughts on the movie theater experience
If you’re unvaccinated, or still very cautious about COVID-19 safety protocols, I would not recommend going to the theaters just yet — some moviegoers didn’t wear masks, even when interacting with employees. Some hand sanitizer stations were empty, and the theater was pretty well-attended.
I called several local theaters, and all said that at least for now, capacity and safety protocols will not change on June 15. The reason being, there hasn’t been enough clarity yet from the state health department on what will and won’t be allowed when everything “reopens.” That could, of course, change by the end of this month.
All things considered, I had a great first time back, and will be going back again soon. (Though, for my wallet’s sake, maybe less frequently than before the pandemic.)
The day after my screening, I got an email from Cinemark urging me to purchase tickets for “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.” So who knows, maybe I’ll be back in one of the theater’s heated leather seats sooner than I think.
Which theaters are open in Sacramento?
- Tower Theatre (2508 Land Park Dr., Sacramento, CA, 95818)
- Esquire IMAX Theatre (1211 K St., Sacramento, CA 95814)
Regal Delta Shores & IMAX (8136 Delta Shores Cir. S, Sacramento, CA, 95832)
Regal Natomas Marketplace ScreenX, 4DX & RPX (3561 Truxel Rd., Sacramento, CA, 95834)
Regal UA Laguna Village (8755 Center Pkwy Dr., Sacramento, CA, 95823)
Century Folsom 14 (261 Iron Point Rd., Folsom, CA, 95630)
Century Laguna 16 (9349 Big Horn Blvd., Elk Grove, CA, 95758)
Century DoCo in downtown Sacramento (1015 Fourth St., Sacramento, CA, 95814)
Century 16 Greenback Lane (6233 Garfield Ave., Sacramento, CA, 95841)
Century Arden 14 (1590 Ethan Way, Sacramento, CA, 95825)
Which theaters are open in Placer County?
- Century Roseville 14 (1555 Eureka Rd., Roseville, CA, 95661)
- Blue Oaks Century Theatres (6692 Lone Tree Blvd, Rocklin, CA, 95765)
Regal UA Olympus Pointe (520 N. Sunrise Ave., Roseville, CA, 95661)
Studio Movie Grill (5140 Commons Dr., Rocklin, CA, 95677)
Which theaters are open in Yolo County?
- Regal Davis Holiday (101 F St., Davis, CA, 95616)
- Regal Davis (420 G St., Davis, CA, 95616)
- State Theatre (322 Main St., Woodland, CA, 95695)