As announced yesterday, the phased reopening of Ireland's economy has been shortened significantly, with all retail outlets allowed to reopen from Monday, with only a handful of exceptions.
As well as this, the five stages of reopening has been shortened to four - which means that cinemas in Ireland will be reopening much sooner than initially anticipated. Previously, cinemas were not due to open in Ireland until August 10th under Phase 5 of the government's reopening strategy.
However, in comments made by Leo Varadkar yesterday evening, it was mentioned that plans to reopen hotels, restaurants, hostels, caravan parks, galleries and museums by June 29th are now underway. What's more, the final phase has been moved to July 20th.
Currently, the government has not yet clarified whether cinemas will fall under Phase 3 or Phase 4 of the plan, but given how cinemas were able to operate with social distancing guidelines prior to the lockdown, either date is technically feasible compared to, say, live events such as musical concerts.
The other question after this is whether or not cinemas will avail themselves of this opportunity. As we previously reported, only one major summer blockbuster is holding firm to its release date - Christopher Nolan's 'Tenet'. As of yesterday, Warner Bros. appeared to be honouring July 17th as its release date.
Given how the lockdown ends more or less completely by July 20th, there wouldn't be much of a wait - if it still goes ahead on that date.
