It's official - Irish cinemas to reopen on July 20th

The government updated their reopening guidelines this weekend.

Irish cinemas will reopen from July 20th, moving up from the original release date of August 10th.

Previously, it was not clear whether or not cinemas would open by June 29th as part of Phase 3 of the government's reopening program, or at Phase 4 on July 20th. However, the government's website on the COVID-19 guidelines updated this weekend to confirm July 20th as the reopening date.

This means that all Irish cinemas will be open, provided social distancing guidelines are in place. Before lockdown commenced, many Irish cinemas had already enacted WHO guidelines for social distancing, such as two-metre distances between patrons, frequent cleaning of touch areas, contactless payment and queue systems in place.

So far, the first major release scheduled for cinemas will be Christopher Nolan's sci-fi espionage thriller, 'Tenet', starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson. Cinemas like Dublin's Light House Cinema have told entertainment.ie that they intend to screen movies that missed their theatrical window during lockdown, as well.