Most of the cinema halls and multiplexes did not reopen in Dehradun district on Thursday despite the approval of the State government. While the movie goers were quite eager to see movies on the big screen, the management of some cinema halls said that it will take a few more weeks to resume the operation as there is no new release this month which can attract audience to the halls. Most of them opined that there is no benefit in playing the reruns of old movies as the locals will not come to watch them mostly due to various digital entertainment platforms available at their disposal. "We will reopen cinema halls when new movies will release the next month. There is no new movie to run on the screens right now and we know people would not come to watch those movies which were already released," said the manager of New Empire Cinema in Rajpur Road, Kulwant Singh. He added that there is a possibility of the release of new movies on October 23 and if it happens, the management will release the films or else, the new movies releasing during Diwali festival will be shown in the halls in November, said Singh.

Bhim Munjal, the owner of Natraj Cinema also stated that his cinema hall will show only the new movies which are releasing the next month as according to him, the audience will be more eager to watch new movies on the big screen after several months. However, some also stated they will reopen their halls in the next few days in Dehradun as they could not reopen them on Thursday due to certain reasons.

 "Since our cinema halls were closed for seven months, we need some time to prepare and make arrangements on the premises as per the guidelines of the government. We will reopen the halls in the next few days with the movies which were released just before the state-wide lockdown," said the manager of PVR cinemas in Dehradun, Manoj Bisht. The management of Carnival Cinemas also said that they will reopen their cinema halls with old movie reruns from Friday.