Briefs for Saturday

HONOLULU – Anyone flying to Hawaii will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test result prior to their departure for the state, with the new rule going into effect two days before Thanksgiving, Gov. David Ige announced Thursday.

Until now, passengers flying to the islands using a pretravel testing program were permitted to arrive and then upload their negative test results to a state database, allowing them to skip two weeks of quarantine.

Some travelers who arrived in Hawaii without their test results, however, wound up later testing positive. Hawaii has one of the country’s lowest rates of positive tests.

Cineplex strikes Universal deal

Another major movie theater chain has struck a deal with Universal Pictures to allow for shorter exclusive theatrical windows. Canada’s Cineplex has agreed on a multiyear “dynamic window” agreement, the film exhibitor and Universal Filmed Entertainment Group said Friday.

Like the deal struck with Cinemark earlier this week and AMC Theaters before that, Universal and Focus Features films will have at least three weeks of theatrical exclusivity before hitting premium video-on-demand.

Titles that have an opening weekend of $50 million or more in North American theaters will be guaranteed at least five weeks in theaters.

The $50 million mark is just theoretical at this point, however. In normal times, a $50 million launch is not uncommon for Universal’s biggest franchises like “Fast & Furious” and “Jurassic World.” But no films have done that kind of business during the pandemic.From wire reports