Texas Movie Theaters Plan to Reopen With TSA-Style Questioning and Temperature Checks

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is slowly but surely lifting business lockdowns in his home state, and that includes movie theaters, which are set to reopen in the “coming days.”

According to Variety, EVO Entertainment in Texas will be reopening two locations on Monday, and to attend a screening, people will have to go through “airport security-style check-in,” CEO Mitchell Roberts said in a statement.

Guests will be ferried through a cordoned area in the front door, asked whether anyone in their household had flu symptoms in the last 14 days, and finally be subjected to an infrared temperature screening. The theater will turn away anyone with a temperature of more than 100.4 degrees.

“I feel like it’s really important for our guests to come in and see what we’re doing to protect them,” Roberts told Variety. “The focus is on earning that customer confidence back.”

Since there are no new blockbusters out there right now to screen, the chain is set to screen Universal’s “Trolls World Tour” and “The Hunt,” both of which are available on VOD right now for $20. Also being screened are “I Still Believe,” “The Invisible Man,” and “Bloodshot.” Ticket prices will, however, be on the cheap side, as general admission will be $5.

Whether you think this plan is stupid or a step in the right direction, this will be an interesting experiment to see just how far-ranging the virus can travel and just how contagious it is to public health if you reopen enclosed public spaces like movie theaters. Yes, COVID-19 can show up symptom-free, so there are flaws in this plan. But, at least they’re taking some kind of steps to figure this situation out. Some businesses are completely ignoring the virus altogether and it’s business as usual. While it could put people’s health in jeopardy, we can learn from these lack of restrictions the same way we would learn from a scientific study.