AMC Theaters Boasts About Cleanliness And Filtration Tech, Floors ‘You Can Eat Off’

AMC Theaters locations all across the U.S. and Canada have been reopening since mid-August, with even more primed to open this weekend in major markets like New Jersey and California. For potential customers on the fence about whether or not to check out “Tenet” this weekend, AMC CEO Adam Aron has made big claims about the chain’s cleanliness measures.

“Our theater cleanliness scores are the best they’ve been in decades, an all-time high,” Aron told CNBC. “I think you can eat off the floor.”

Aron further explained that the company has been collaborating with Clorox and the Harvard University School of Public Health on safety measures to ensure theaters are as safe as possible in the wake of COVID-19 closures. In addition to standard measures like face masks and limited theater capacities, Aron also claimed that AMC has spent “millions” on high-tech solutions.

“But much more important than that, we’ve invested literally millions and millions in high-tech solutions. We’ve upgraded our air filters to MERV 13. It’s about four times the filtration that we had prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Aron said. “We’ve bought electrostatic sprayers for all of our theaters so that we’re spraying down out auditoriums with these electronically charged cleaning solutions, so we’re all over both touch and airborne transmission of the virus.”

AMC will have reopened 75% of its 636 locations in the U.S. as of this weekend. The initial rollout began on Aug. 20 with around 100 locations.

The return of moviegoers has been slow to start, with the recent blockbuster release of “Tenet” only bringing in $20.2 million over Labor Day weekend, far less than the $225 million tentpole release would otherwise have been expected to make. This performance has potentially led studios to consider further delays for blockbusters like “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Black Widow.”