The day has finally come for Jakartans to go back to the movies — if they wish to do so — as Indonesia’s major cinema operator XXI has resumed operations in the capital after closing since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At least 16 XXI cinemas across Jakarta reopened yesterday, including movie theaters at Gandaria City, Pondok Indah Mall 2 (PIM) 2, and Blok M Plaza in South Jakarta; Pusat Grosir Cililitan (PGC) and Bassura City Mall in East Jakarta; Matahari Mall Daan Mogot and Puri Indah Mall in West Jakarta; Metropole in Central Jakarta; and Mall Kelapa Gading 3 in North Jakarta. The complete list of the cinemas can be found here.
In a statement issued yesterday, XXI’s spokesperson Dewinta Hutagaol said the company had received authorization from Jakarta’s Tourism and Creative Economy Agency to reopen their theaters amid the Transitional Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB Transisi).
“When we conducted trials for the cinema reopening, we made our best efforts to implement the health protocols in the cinema environment, including carrying out health protocols,” Dewinta said in the statement.
If you’re ready to brave the health risks and plan on going back to the cinemas, your experience in XXI theaters will be notably different from the pre-pandemic days. Only moviegoers aged between 12 to 60 years old are allowed to enter XXI’s premises, and a number of regulations will be imposed, including a 25 percent capacity limit and standard COVID-19 health protocols such as temperature check and hand sanitizer use at the entrance, obligatory face masks, and QR code scanning for contact tracing. If your body temperature is above 37.3 degrees celsius, you will be denied from entering the premises.
Moviegoers are encouraged to buy tickets beforehand through XXI’s official ticketing merchants M-TIX or TIX ID, or pay by card at the counter while keeping a 1-meter distance from other visitors in the theater. Inside the studio, moviegoers are only allowed to sit in the designated seats and not use the ones marked to remain vacant, and are expected to not eat or drink during the show.
In addition, XXI employees are required to wear face masks, gloves, and face shield on duty.
Back in mid-October, XXI began reopening its theaters in major cities including Bandung, Banjarmasin, and Jayapura after having to switch off the projectors since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Around the same period, cinema chains CGV and Cinepolis reopened a number of their cinemas in Jakarta.
Older film selections
Several older Indonesian and foreign films are currently playing at XXI cinemas, such as Break The Silence: The Movie, a documentary that goes behind the scenes of K-pop superstars BTS during their Love Yourself World Tour in 2018 to 2019, and Hong Kong martial arts movie Ip Man 4: The Finale which was previously released in Indonesia in December of last year.
Other films include Rambo: Last Blood, Brahms: The Boy II, Kursk, The Cave, and Line of Duty, while Indonesian films are represented by horror flicks Pengabdi Setan, Aku Tahu Kapan Kamu Mati, and Kajeng Kliwon.
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