MANILA -- Four months after the nationwide closure of theaters, Philippine cinema operators are gearing for the new normal in movie viewing via drive-in cinemas.
The SM Cinema chain on Tuesday showed the first images of The Cinema Drive-In at the Amphitheater of SM City Pampanga, which will open on Friday, July 31, with the showing of the long-awaited horror movie from South Korea, "Train 2 Busan: Peninsula."
The first of several drive-in cinemas to open in the Philippines, the San Fernando, Pampanqa venue covers 8,000 sq.m. According to SM Cinema official Chad Caluyo, it can accommodate a total of 87 cars per screening. More than the physical transformation of cinema from its traditional enclosed form, the switch to drive-in cinemas is part of efforts of the movie industry to stay relevant in mass entertainment threatened to extinction by quarantine restrictions due to the pandemic. Other drive-in cinema sites are being planned in Pasay and Makati with the conversion of empty lots and parking spaces.
"We know that this will not bring in a lot of money -- yet -- but we have to reboot the movie-viewing experience," a CEAP insider told ABS-CBN News.
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