When the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, many movie theater owners – from large, international chains to smaller, single-screen independent theaters – were forced to close their doors as well.

William Barstow’s Omaha-based Main Street Theatres, which operates Aksarben Cinema in Aksarben Village, was no exception.

“We lost our pipeline of content,” said Barstow, who is Main Street’s co-owner and CEO. “We took a very public stand that, until we had a steady stream or a full pipeline of product from major studios of compelling content, all released nationally with significant marketing budgets, there really was no need to open a theater. Unless you have really strong, compelling content, you’re not going to have customers.”

With studios delaying the releases of their big summer blockbusters and halting production on film sets around the world, the movie industry, which earned more than $40 billion in 2019, has been reeling.

Some theaters have held drive-in nights or sold to-go concessions, and a few major releases have been made through video-on-demand platforms, but the industry writ large has been on hiatus.

Now, after five months of planning and preparation, Hollywood is beginning to ramp up production again and theaters are eager to welcome back a wary public that has been itching to get out of the house. Many Omaha metro area theaters, including Aksarben Cinema, opened their doors to customers starting last Friday.

“It’s going to be some heavy lifting,” Barstow said. “It’s a psychological thing. I think guests really want to know that we’re prepared, that we’re thoughtfully thinking about these kinds of things.”

Barstow’s theaters are going to reduce seating capacity in each theater. The box office software will automatically block out two seats on both sides when tickets are purchased and the number of screenings per day will be limited to ease the flow of traffic through the lobbies.

Barstow’s theaters have also implemented enhanced cleaning protocols in between screenings.

“It’s not something you haven’t seen already somewhere in the last three or four months,” Barstow said.

Barstow doesn’t think going to a movie theater will be any different than going to a grocery store or a restaurant. In fact, he thinks the theater might even be a safer experience.

“We’re much more predictable,” Barstow said.

Movie theaters only have a few touch points, such as the box office and the concession stands. Tickets can be purchased online to avoid the first, and the other is similar to visiting a fast-food restaurant, Barstow said.

In addition to disrupting the summer film schedule, the pandemic has also made some studios rethink the way customers should be able to access their movies. One of Disney’s big summer releases was the live-action adaptation of “Mulan,” which the studio moved to its Disney+ streaming service. The film will cost $30 to rent, in addition to the monthly subscription fee.

The upcoming “Bill and Ted Face the Music,” the third film in the “Bill and Ted” series starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, will see same-day release in theaters and video on demand.

Barstow doesn’t think these distribution methods will prove a death-knell to the theater industry, and he appreciates the studios have their own bottom lines to worry about.

“Our industry has been nearly destroyed,” Barstow said. “We can have arguments about VOD later when we’re healthy, but right now I do not begrudge distributors from figuring out a way to make money.”

Barstow said death of the movie theater has been predicted before, numerous times, with the invention of the TV and then the VCR and DVD, but “movie theaters are something that’s deeply ingrained in the culture.”

Barstow is so certain of his industry’s future that he’s building a new 12 screen theater in West Omaha, near 204th and Harrison streets, though the pandemic has slowed the schedule.

“Realistically, we’ll have the cleanest, newest theater in the market,” Barstow said.

The theater is aiming to open sometime in the fourth quarter before the holiday season.

Another potential hurdle thrown at independent movie theaters this year was the termination of the decades-old Paramount consent decrees, a set of restrictions on how major movie studios package movies for theaters.

Created in the late 1940s, the decrees banned, among other things, the ownership of movie theaters by the studios. Studios could no longer choose to provide their films to one theater but not another, or leverage theaters into accepting a bundle of lesser films to access a blockbuster.

The U.S. Justice Department argued that such restrictions were unnecessary today, especially given the numerous ways content is distributed these days, such as streaming and video on demand. The decrees also didn’t apply to all the major players, such as Disney, although they voluntarily followed them to avoid antitrust liability.

Barstow doesn’t think the decrees being rescinded will have much impact on his theater. At the very least, it’s not a top-of-the-mind concern while he’s working to resume normal business.

“In today’s world there is not a film that doesn’t get released by a major studio that I don’t play or that anybody doesn’t play in every single complex they own,” Barstow said. “Out of all the things I worry about, the Paramount decrees have come up only when somebody has asked me about it in the last 30 years.”