« We got popcorn and champagne, » the Oscar-nomination favorite Summerville tells TheWrap
At a time when movie theaters can’t open, how do you create the moviegoing experience? It isn’t easy. In-person movie premieres were put on hold 10 months ago, as many theaters closed (temporarily, we all hope) out of caution over the spread of coronavirus. One highly anticipated film, “A Quiet Place Part II,” even had a splashy premiere in New York City last March, mere days before the city lockdown was implemented. Still unreleased, it’s now slated to open this April. As some theaters opened around the country, with social distancing measures in place, film premieres moved along with so many other events into a virtual space. Meanwhile, studios and audiences found ways to improvise in the new moviegoing reality. In December, “Wonder Woman 1984” scored the biggest opening weekend gross since the pandemic began, thanks in large part to privately-booked multiplex screenings. Other audiences found even more clever ways to replicate the movie theater – indeed even the movie premiere – experience. Even Hollywood crew members, known for their ingenuity, took things to the next level. David Fincher’s “Mank,” the black-and-white drama about the screenwriter of “Citizen Kane,” wrapped principal photography a few weeks before the COVID outbreak in the U.
