“Coming to a movie theater for me is like coming home,” Liam Neeson said to ticket buyers of the 7pm screening of The Marksman at the AMC Lincoln Square on Friday night, according to a statement. “I find it sacred. That feeling has never changed,” he continued.
It was the first night of moviegoing in New York City in nearly a year. After months of confusion over why theaters in other states, and then outside the five boroughs, were allowed to open, Governor Andrew Cuomo made the surprise decision in late February that projection booths could open in the Big Apple on March 5.
While some independent theaters were caught unaware by the announcement (the owner of NYU-adjacent Cinema Village found out “like everyone else on the news”) larger chains like AMC were ready to make the date. (Alas, Regal Cinemas is still being ambiguous about reopening, particularly annoying to this writer, as one of their finer multiplexes is but a two-minute walk away.)
But at the AMC Lincoln Square, a theater even Christopher Nolan has praised as one of the best for projection and sound, they didn’t just have new movies, they had movie stars.
“This is one for the diary,” Neeson told The Hollywood Reporter about his decision to greet the fans, even with the 25 percent capacity cap and other social distancing precautions.
The Marksman is directed and co-written by Robert Lorenz, a longtime associate of Clint Eastwood‘s. In it, Neeson plays a retired U.S. Marine on the Mexico-Arizona border who must aid a young boy being pursued by a drug cartel. Critic Evan Saathoff called it “the kind of film you watch on accident more than seek out, but you probably won’t regret the accident.”
At least one fan got a masked pic with the star at the screening.
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