Regal Cinemas Is Shutting Down All Movie Theaters in the U.S.

Regal Cinemas has announced that they will be shutting down all of their movie theaters in the U.S. during this coronavirus nightmare. The theaters will officially close on Tuesday, March 17th as a precaution under the circumstances that the world has found itself in.

Regal is the second-largest movie theater chain in the U.S. with 7,155 screens in 542 theaters in 42 states, and it is the first big chain out of the top 3 to close. There’s no doubt that the other will follow shortly. As for right now, theaters have been ordered to shut down in Los Angeles and New York City, and any other theaters that are remaining open have limited capacity to either 50% per auditorium, or like AMC, 50 people. 

Mooky Greidinger, Cineworld CEO shared a statement with Deadline, saying:

“Any time, at any Regal, it’s our goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for our employees and guests. At this time, we have made the difficult decision to close our theaters. We value our movie-loving customers and have no doubt we will be serving them again as soon as possible with a full slate of Hollywood blockbusters. The Cineworld Group and Regal Theatres are strong, standing on solid ground and our continued goal is to be The Best Place to Watch a Movie!”

There’s no word yet on how they will handle their Regal Unlimited monthly subscription program, which I’m a part of. Hopefully, they don’t charge me while the theaters are closed! They haven’t made a statement on that yet.