What happened
Shares of Cinemark Holdings (CNK +1.45%) were jumping 10% higher in morning trading Monday after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that many of the state's movie theaters could reopen beginning Oct. 23. Only those located within New York City will be prohibited from opening.
So what
Movie theaters began reopening in August after having closed their doors for months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Without a source of revenue, theater operators were in danger of going bankrupt, and AMC Entertainment (AMC 2.50%) was forced to negotiate its debt with lenders to keep that from happening.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
The reopening announcement by New York is a bigger deal for Cinemark's rival than its own business because it operates only one theater in the entire state, upstate in Rochester.
While Regal theater parent Cineworld said it would shutter all of its theaters again because studios were abandoning their 2020 release dates until next year, Cinemark, like AMC, has said it will hang tough and remain open. Attracting consumers with reruns, though, hasn't been easy.
Cinemark is in a better financial condition than AMC, reporting that as of the end of July it had $525 million in cash and was only burning through $50 million a month, meaning it has the resources to survive the closings and lack of movies to show.
