Cineworld — the parent company of Regal Cinemas — confirmed Monday that it will close down its theaters this week, cutting 45,000 jobs, Reuters reports.
- All 536 Regal Cinemas in the U.S. and 127 Cineworld locations in the UK will close.
- The theaters may reopen in “two months, or a bit longer.”
Rumors heated up over the weekend that Cineworld would close a lot of its theaters, which I wrote about for Deseret.com.
Cineworld confirmed the news Monday morning in a statement to Variety.
- “In response to an increasingly challenging theatrical landscape and sustained key market closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cineworld confirms that it will be temporarily suspending operations at all of its 536 Regal theatres in the U.S. and its 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse theaters in the U.K. from Thursday, 8 October 2020.”
- “Without these new releases, Cineworld cannot provide customers in both the U.S. and the U.K. — the company’s primary markets — with the breadth of strong commercial films necessary for them to consider coming back to theaters against the backdrop of COVID-19.”
Cineworld Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger told Sky News the reason for the closure:
- “From a liquidity point of view, we were bleeding much bigger amounts when we are open than when we were closed,” Greidinger said.