Gull Lake's Lyceum Theatre is feeling an effect of the coronavirus that many may have not considered.

The theatre's upcoming showing of Sony Pictures' Peter Rabbit has been delayed due to the COVID-19 virus.

The movie itself, as well as many others scheduled to play at the venue, have had their releases delayed by production companies.

Peter Rabbit isn't out until August f the original release date of March 27.

Another movie that was scheduled to play at the Gull Lake venue, Fast & Furious 9, was set to reach theatres by May but is now scheduled to be released in April of 2021.

Manager of the Gull Lake Lyceum Theatre, Cole Girodat, elaborated that he believes the delays are due to film companies' fears about attendance.

"It's mostly for world box office revenue reasons, of course, there are the public safety issues, but I think the main reason is the box office is going to be affected by people not going outside because of the spread of the virus right now."

Girodat said that while he hasn't heard any disappointment from his audience, he knows people were excited for Peter Rabbit and other blockbuster films.

He added that the Gull Lake theatre was lucky that they usually run movies after their release dates, and would look to screen older movies that the theatre hasn't played yet.

When asked about possible future attendance dips due to concerns from movie audiences, he said that while the risk in the province is low, Alberta regulations might influence Saskatchewan. Alberta is limiting theatres for things like the size of public gatherings and may add regulations on the density of the audience.

"For theatres, you can't have more than 250 [people], and the [Alberta Government] may also be cutting auditorium capacity to 50 per cent, no matter if it's 250 or not so people can have their space from each other."

"It's definitely concerning. We are, of course, taking it seriously, we're cleaning high-traffic areas like the front doors, the bathrooms, nightly, and we're just hoping that we can prevent anything from spreading around here."

He shared that he had received communication from the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Central Canada regarding measures to help ensure theatres stay safe.

The message included NATO information on theatre operation in the face of the pandemic.