English cinemas will be able to open their doors again from early December – but only if they sit outside of ‘tier 3’ areas of the country.
The latest entirely clear announcement from the UK government over Covid-19 restrictions, made by Boris Johnson yesterday, has cleared the way for cinemas in England to reopen their doors from December 2nd.
Just not all of them.
Whilst the latest nationwide lockdown will come to an end on December 2nd, a new version of the tier system is being implemented in its place. As such, areas around England will be sorted in one of three tiers. Cinemas in areas deemed tier one or tier two will be open to reopen with a limit of 50% capacity. Those in tier three, however, will have to remain shut.
The fluidity of the tier system inevitably brings with it no shortage of confusion, and a good chunk of the country is expected to be in tier three when the lockdown restrictions lift.
Releases are being lined up for December, with – once again – a heroic bunch of independent distributors sending lots of films to cinemas. But you’ll need to check restrictions for your local area to see what’s open and where.
In Scotland, cinemas have begun to reopen over the past week or two. We await news of individual restrictions from the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies.
