Regal Cinemas has decided to close all of its locations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For many movie studios, filming during the pandemic has been difficult. Thus, movie theaters draw from a smaller pool of films to screen as well as have trouble drawing people back to theaters.
“We are like a grocery shop that doesn’t have vegetables, fruit, meat,” Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger told The Wall Street Journal.
“We cannot operate for a long time without a product.”
Regal Cinemas is the second-largest movie chain behind the likes of AMC. The company operates more than 500 movie theaters nationwide. Earlier this year, the company moved to close its theaters down due to the pandemic. In August, it moved to bring some of those theaters back with the release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and a decline in coronavirus cases nationwide. However, recent outbreaks in the midwest and parts of the east coast have brought the company’s doors to a close yet again.
As a result of the pandemic and movie theater closures, some of the biggest films of the year have been pushed back. No Time To Die, Black Widow and more have all been delayed until 2021 or 2022. Still, moviegoers can catch films like Mulan and Antebellum from their homes through video-on-demand releases. With no end to the pandemic in sight, the future of the movie industry will be digital and confined to a home viewing experience.
