Movie theater owners just dropped their lawsuit against New Jersey over shutdown order

A federal lawsuit that challenged New Jersey’s shutdown order of movie theaters has been put to rest, according to NJ.com.

The National Association of Theatre Owners and other theater operators agreed to withdraw their lawsuit against New Jersey, which made national headlines after the plaintiff said New Jersey’s decision to close movie theaters was “unconstitutional.”

First, some context:

New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy’s order shuts down movie theaters amid the coronavirus pandemic. As states opened up, Murphy refused to budge, as I wrote about for Deseret.com.

So the National Association of Theatre Owners of New Jersey filed a complaint that compared movie theaters reopening to churches and other public gatherings.

“By this complaint, plaintiffs challenge defendants’ unconstitutional and unlawful distinctions in allowing certain places of public assembly to reopen, while requiring movie theaters to remain closed. COVID-19 represents a serious public health risk, and plaintiffs support fair and reasonable actions by the government to address that risk. However, the government-mandated total closure of movie theaters is neither fair nor reasonable, and is instead a violation of plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of expression, equal protection of the laws, due process under the law, and is a taking of property without just compensation.”

The lawsuit spoke about how “New Jersey has also allowed places of worship to reopen but has made no timeline for the commencement of stage 3, or for the reopening of movie theaters,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Now what?

Per NJ.com, movie theaters within the state can reopen but few actually are. Box office numbers remain down within the state and across the nation, leaving several theaters still in the dark.

New data show that about 65% to 75% of movie theaters have reopened in the U.S., according to Variety.