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Grand Avenue Theater reopens | Sneak preview inside of new COVID-19 prevention measures

The theater is set to open Thursday.

BELTON, Texas — The Grand Avenue Theater in Belton will officially reopen its doors on Thursday. For moviegoers, there will be some differences as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

"For us, we have always been about clean, courteous, classy," General Manager and Partner Daniel Bucher said. "That's still going to be the mantra, the motto and the drive going forward."

Inside the building, there is signage that reminds guests to stay six feet apart, stop the spread of COVID-19 and hand sanitizer is set up in different areas. 

Guests and staff are required to wear masks. For staff, they are required to wear masks at all times. For guests, it is a bit different. 

Masks will need to be worn in the lobby, bathrooms and hallways. Bucher said when they get to their seat with food or beverages they can take their masks off, but they are encouraged to wear them in the theaters. 

Employees will sanitize in between every customer. If they handle food, cards or cash they will wash and sanitize. Bucher said someone will also walk around to wipe handles, etc. 

The theater bought an electrostatic backpack sprayer to spray between each show to disinfect the seats.

Butcher said the spray is, "To spray sanitizer and disinfectant on the seats in between each show since that's where we have the most points of contact for the longest periods of time."

Inside the theaters, parties will be separated by two seats. The theatres are also capped at 50% capacity. 

Bucher said about 28 of 34 employees will return. 

"It was challenging for a while to be able to, to have to tell our people, 'Hey we are shutting down,' and you know, there is just a time where we have continued overhead and expenses and fixed costs that don't go away we have to make the decision just to kind of slow burn and make it through," Bucher said.

And, there will be new movies when you go to the theater.

"That's why we waited 'til this weekend is so could kind of have more of a slate of movies versus than just a single movie or two," Bucher said. 

He said that in November when looking at the average number of movies per week, is when it kind of kicks back up. 

"From now until then, we're just going to be showing what we can and doing what we can and being here for people to get away," Bucher said.

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