Cineworld Confirms Closure of All Regal Cinemas in US

A little over a month after theaters reopened to the public, every Regal Cinemas location in the United States is shutting its doors once again. The returns so far haven’t been promising, as people haven’t embraced a return to theaters, and likely won’t until there is a more definitive solution to the coronavirus pandemic. Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which aimed to be the film that would get theaters going once again, hasn’t been able to as many fans in seats as Warner Bros. had hoped. So, with no new movies on the horizon for a little while, Regal is closing shop.

Regal owner Cineworld announced on Monday morning that every Regal location in the U.S., as well as every Cineworld location in the U.K., would be suspending operations on a temporary basis. There isn’t yet a date set for reopening.

“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,” the company said in a statement.

At this time, there are a couple of major movies still set to be released in theaters in November. Both The Croods: A New Age and Pixar’s Soul are scheduled for Thanksgiving releases, but that doesn’t seem likely at the moment. The loss of Black Widow and No Time to Die was likely powerful enough to keep theaters closed for a while. It also hasn’t helped that theaters in major markets like New York never even had the chance to reopen.

“This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable re-openings in all of our markets – including meeting, and often exceeding, local health and safety guidelines in our theatres and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry,” said Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger. “We are especially grateful for and proud of the hard work our employees put in to adapt our theaters to the new protocols and cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was, Cineworld will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations in these markets at the appropriate time, when key markets have more concrete guidance on their reopening status and, in turn, studios are able to bring their pipeline of major releases back to the big screen.”

Are you disappointed to see Regal locations closing once again? When do you think they’ll reopen on a permanent basis? Let us know in the comments.