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The second largest movie theater chain in the United States, Regal Cimemas announced that as of February 15, some 39 branches will be closed. The decision comes after its parent company Cineworld will declare bankruptcy at the end of 2022after being strongly affected by the restrictions given during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In September of last year, Cineworld had also announced the closure of two movie theaters. CEO Mooky Greidinger explained that “the pandemic was an incredibly difficult time for our business, with the forced closure of theaters, a huge disruption to movie times that has brought us to this point,” he said.
During the increase in infections by the virus, the company lost $2 millionWhile in the 2021 the figure was close to $500 million. The chain now accumulates a large debt due to several unpaid leases, and with these actions it intends to generate an annual savings of 22 million dollars and thus keep another 500 movie theaters open.
Regal Cinema explained that in Florida there will be two movie theaters that will close, one in Boca de Raton and another in Miami. In California there will be about seven and in New York they will close 6. The other theaters are in New Jersey, Maryland, Alaska, Ohio, Washington, Illinois, among others.
The economic problems that already existed worldwide, later reinforced with the arrival of the pandemic, greatly affected the film industry; and despite the fact that 3 years have passed, there are still companies like Cineworld that have not managed to recover, to this is also added the opening of streaming platforms such as Netflix that have become great competition for movie theaters.
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