Phoenix Theatres owner offers up social distance space for classrooms when schools restart

FOX 2 - As movie theaters sit dark and empty during this pandemic and the debate continues about children returning to school, the owner of Phoenix Theatres, Cory Jacobson, says he may have the "perfect, temporary solution."

"It struck me when I woke up in the morning, that we have screens that have big rooms with an excess of 80 to 130 seats per auditorium," Jacobson said.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues and the number of cases surge in many states, the theater business is one of the hardest hit already. But rent and bills still need to be paid and along with employees.

The biggest problem is the timetable for reopening and getting back to business.

"You don't really know when you'll eventually be out of the pandemic and it will allow our businesses to reopen," Jacobson said.

So Jacobson thought why not help out the nation's school systems struggling with small classrooms - that are unable to social distance students.

"All of our seats are numbered so that gives each student an opportunity to have assigned seats and they can social distance like crazy because we have lots of space," he said.

With 12 screens in Massachusetts and Iowa and about 24 in Michigan - in Livonia, Monroe and Wayne, Jacobson says his theaters are already ready to go. He and his team have been preparing to open for the last couple of months, sanitizing and preparing to socially distance moviegoers.

"This may be a great opportunity to gain a little revenue and at the same time provide a little service to community that is certainly needed," he said.

Jacobson says businesses have already used his theaters for meetings, stressing the theaters' audio-visual capacity, digital projectors, sound system and strong Wi-Fi, would be great for students to use.

"We can mic the teachers. We can put on programs that involve recordings, or things off of the internet (with a) massive Wi-Fi system already in the building," he said.

"We've done a lot of field trips and things of that nature with all the schools, so we are familiar with them in that aspect," said Teires Reid, Phoenix Theatres VP of operations.

But what happens when the movie industry gets going again? Jacobson says they won't have to kick schools out with little notice. They can show movies in the evenings and on weekends. 

Jacobson says he is already reaching out to both public and charter schools in Michigan, Iowa and Massachusetts.

"We'll see what happens," he said.