Regal Cinemas is Closing Down Its Movie Theaters Again After NO TIME TO DIE Postponed
It was recently announced that the release of the new James Bond film No Time To Die was pushed back from November 20th, 2020 to April 2nd, 2021. In response to that new, Cineworld is closing down 128 of its UK and Ireland cinemas as well as its U.S. Regal chain as of next week.
We have no idea how long this closure will last, but with no big movies being released in theaters, they aren’t making any money! According to studio sources, “it’s just bad for overall moviegoing consumer confidence. Overall, it sends an erratic message as to whether movie theaters are really open or closed.”
This is sad news, not only for movie fans, but for all the people who are going to lose their jobs again over this. People have to survive financially somehow! Movie theaters cant effectively operate under these conditions, though.
Regal is the No 2 movie theater chain in the U.S. with 7,155 screens in 543 theaters in 42 states. They closed in mid-March due to the pandemic and reopened where they could just prior to Warner Bros.’ release of Tenet.
It’ll be interesting to see how other movie theaters respond to this. Will more movie theaters decide to shut down as well? Will it cause the studios that are releasing films in theaters later this year, like Pixar’s Soul, DC’s Wonder Woman 1984, and Warner Bros.’ Dune, to be pushed back further to 2021?
During their recent 6-month earnings filing ending June 30, Cineworld issued the following statement as they deal with a $8.2 billion in debt: “There can be no certainty as to the future impact of COVID-19 on the Group. If Governments were to strengthen restrictions on social gathering, which may therefore oblige us to close our estate again or further push back movie releases, it would have a negative impact on our financial performance and likely require the need to raise additional liquidity. We have highlighted the potential impact this could have on the Group within our going concern statement in this document.”
The future of movie theaters has been in question since the start of the pandemic, and the way things have played out the past few months is not good.
Source: Deadline