Cineworld, parent company of Regal, today announced that it will be temporarily suspending operations at all of its 536 Regal theatres in the U.S., as of Thursday, October 8, 2020.

“This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support a safe and sustainable reopening in the U.S.– from putting in place robust health and safety measures at our theatres to joining our industry in making a collective commitment to the CinemaSafe protocols to reaching out to state and local officials to educate them on these initiatives. We are especially grateful for and proud of the hard work our employees put in to adapt our theatres to the new protocols and cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was,”

Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld.

With many U.S. markets (primarily New York) still closed, studios have been reluctant to release new films from the Hollywood pipeline. Without the breadth of strong commercial films necessary for people to consider heading back to theaters against the backdrop of COVID-19 it has just become financially impossible for Cineworld to keep operating these theaters.

“Despite our work, positive feedback from our customers and the fact that there has been no evidence to date linking any COVID cases with cinemas, we have not been given a route to reopen in New York, although other indoor activities – like indoor dining, bowling and casinos were already allowed. The prolonged closures have had a detrimental impact on the release slate for the rest of the year, and, in turn, our ability to supply our customers with the lineup of blockbusters they’ve come to expect from us. As such, it is simply impossible to continue operations in our primary markets.”

Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld.