CLEVELAND — A small northeast Ohio movie theater chain has managed to survive the pandemic and is now slowly reopening. 

"It’s been by far the toughest year since I’ve been in the business for over 20 years," said Sean Denny, the director of operations for Cleveland Cinemas. "it's been something you never could have predicted."

Denny said it’s been a struggle to keep the small theater chain afloat.

Cleveland Cinemas currently operates four theaters around northeast Ohio. Only two are open right now: Chagrin Cinemas and the Cedar Lee Theatre. Many theaters have joined cinemasafe.org to let patrons know safety is their first priority. 

"Cinema Safe, a group that all — pretty much all the theaters in this country are abiding by — we are cinema-safe compliant as we would refer to it as. It’s an organization that’s come up with a set of rules that theaters are to follow," said Denny.

Denny believes the movie theater business also faces other challenges when it comes to filling empty seats. 

"We have two big movies, 'Cruella' and 'A Quiet Place II' opening but the normal slate of movies for the summer isn’t quite where it normally is. If people are comfortable coming back to the movies, we also need some movies to be there that people want to see," said Denny.

Cleveland Cinemas Capitol Theater should be opening its doors sometime this summer, and the Apollo theater here in Oberlin opens up Friday, June 4.