All Regal and Cineworld Movie Theaters To Close Until Further Notice (npr.org) 105
Regal Cinemas, a subsidiary of Cineworld Group, said it will shut down all 536 locations on Thursday until further notice. The closure reflects "an increasingly challenging theatrical landscape" due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is temporary, the chain said. NPR reports: Regal is shutting down theaters again less than two months after it started to reopen U.S. locations in late August. The decision was announced after the James Bond franchise's No Time to Die was shelved until 2021, further pushing back a release that had already been delayed. Roughly 40,000 Regal employees across the U.S. now face a work furlough, the company told NPR. More than 5,000 employees in the U.K. will also be affected, the BBC reported.
"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.," said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, noting the chain's safety precautions for staff and moviegoers. In a statement, Greidinger emphasized that "there has been no evidence to date linking any COVID cases with cinemas." He also aired frustration that Regal can't yet operate in New York state, a key U.S. market, although some indoor venues such as bowling alleys and casinos have been allowed to resume business. "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," Greidinger said. "As such, it is simply impossible to continue operations in our primary markets."
"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.," said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, noting the chain's safety precautions for staff and moviegoers. In a statement, Greidinger emphasized that "there has been no evidence to date linking any COVID cases with cinemas." He also aired frustration that Regal can't yet operate in New York state, a key U.S. market, although some indoor venues such as bowling alleys and casinos have been allowed to resume business. "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," Greidinger said. "As such, it is simply impossible to continue operations in our primary markets."
Just as well ... (Score:5, Funny)
There really aren't any movies out I'm dying to see -- or something like that.
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Re:Just as well ... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's pretty weak analysis. Did you consider any factors other than your politics?
Maybe, direct economic factors? Like consumer demand? And theater capacity? And that if you increase capacity, you decrease demand, because COVID.
Re:Just as well ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Demand is there but because they need to maintain social distancing and moderate behaviour (no shouting or cheering in the cinema please, and keep your mask on at all times) they simply can't make it work. Hollywood is so hung up on opening box office numbers and so afraid of streaming that the only thing they can do is wait.
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Of course they can't make it work, they've encouraged obnoxious behavior forever, because the people who come back 1000 times and recite all the lines are their real bread and butter. Boring, insipid people use it as a place to meta-party.
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Why does a movie that is "bad" make money because it is in a theater and not if it is allowed to be purchased and streamed?
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Because people don't find out its bad until after the opening weekend when they already went to see it.
There was a story several years ago about some MPAA douche complaining that the internet was ruining it by allowing people to see reviews on opening day and avoid crap movies.
Re:Just as well ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Dune and Wonderwoman would be out, if theaters were allowed to operate. They decided to push the date because theaters are not operating
That is quite likely, although then the next batch of movies a couple months later would be delayed after deaths spike again. But what is another 100k dead in order to see a superhero movie a few months early?
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You are such a big expert at everything related to the studios and everything that is trending and long tails. Thanks for your insightful input!
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He must be pulling yet another power play!
Uh, no.
Re:Just as well ... (Score:5, Funny)
Especially when James Bond himself is telling you that it's No Time to Die.
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Unfortunately the US President seems to think The World is Not Enough.
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So, he's giving the world the Goldfinger ??
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He's too busy grabbing women by the Octopussy.
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Something something moonraker
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Hollywood and sports: "We're boycotting this state because of [issue of the moment.]"
China: "We're re-education-camping a million muslims."
H&S: "[nothing] and that's the law."
Reporter: "You have the wisdom of Solomon."
Is that the chicken or the egg? (Score:3)
Okay, that's hardly all of it. Obviously studios are looking around and seeing that attendance is
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The way it should have worked is to shut down for a short period to let the hospitals catch up, then open back up for a similar period as cases increase until hospitals start to reach capacity again. Rinse, repeat until a vaccine is discovered or until the number of cases reaches a level where hospitals, which have since increased capacity, are able to keep up with cases. A majority of cases can be successfully treated but only if the people can actually get treated. When the hospitals are overwhelmed, peop
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Pretty much this. The part you left out is for political advantage a complacent and complicit media has help to stoke the public fear.
Rather than provide the public with reasonable risk analogies for various classes of people, like you're in this age bracket or you have diabietes etc, and giving them useful information like your risk factor for contracting COVID if you do nothing and having a case more serious than a typical cold is similar to _XYZ_.
They instead chose over and over again and continue to re
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Even if that is true, so what?
Bending the curve does not mean we change the number of people under it. If I you are allowed to assume wild hypotheticals suppor to your position so can I.
What I do know is a little economic history where wars and plagues have killed large numbers of the US population; when the people affected were much younger and the population was much smaller and the economic impacts were LESS than these lockdowns. The governments job its right there at the very start of the constitution
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Bending the curve absolutely changes the number of people under it. There are many people who, without extraordinary medical assistance, would die from COVID. Things like ventilators, oxygen treatment, various drugs and doctors to prescribe them.
You can break down the number of COVID cases in to 3 categories:
1) Those who will survive and not need medical care to survive
2) Those who will die without extra ordinary medical care but will survive if they receive the medical care
3) Those who will die despi
Re:Is that the chicken or the egg? (Score:4, Insightful)
You honestly thought it could be only a couple of weeks? Granted, I did not envision still working from home this late in the game, but even with effective policies I figured it would be a month or two.
However, the "lockdowns" turned out to have dozens of exceptions that made them into swiss cheese, we never implemented test, isolate, and trace, and we avoided getting even first responders the protective equipment they needed. Not to mention the states and counties that refused to do anything serious until it was too late because the pandemic was only happening to "others".
Well Theaters are only slightly less infectious (Score:2)
than the average ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese, so they have that going for them.
I would like to see Tenet in Imax, but I guess I'll wait.
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but I guess I'll wait.
Its not your choice, you MUST WAIT. You dont get to decide.
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but I guess I'll wait.
Its not your choice, you MUST WAIT. You dont get to decide.
Yeah, there's still Cinemark and AMC. I haven't been to a Regal in like 10+ years, and I have no idea what a Cineworld is.
Re:Well Theaters are only slightly less infectious (Score:4, Informative)
Regal is the second-largest film exhibitor in the U.S., after AMC Theatres. It is a subsidiary of Cineworld Group, which is based in the U.K. – where the corporation is also closing more than 100 theaters.
The coronavirus has hammered Cineworld's stock price, which commanded around $275 one year ago. On Friday, the share price was hovering just below 40 British pounds (about $52) – but with the new closures, it plummeted below 17 pounds (about $22) on Monday before recovering some of those losses.
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For some of us it's still our choice. A choice to never go to a theater again. A choice that was made years if not decades ago, before the pandemic.
Re:Well Theaters are only slightly less infectious (Score:5, Insightful)
Its not your choice, you MUST WAIT. You dont get to decide.
How privileged have we gotten if some of us think not being allowed to go to theaters is some tragedy? My grandpa was drafted to fight in France and my dad was drafted to fight in Vietnam. But if my generation has their movie releases delayed a year to save a million lives it is unacceptable. How pathetic are we?
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Why can't people be allowed to weigh the risks and choose for themselves?
Re:Well Theaters are only slightly less infectious (Score:4, Informative)
Why do you think opening theaters will cause a million deaths?
Opening theaters would not happen in isolation. Theaters and other venues where people congregate in large numbers indoors would be among the last locations to fully open up. If theaters are open then basically everything is open. Opening theaters enough so that box office numbers return to the numbers studios are looking for would require very few if any restrictions on theater capacity.
This type of behavior is exactly what was causing the exponential growth of cases in March, which led to a doubling of deaths per day every 5-6 days by early April. Most people just don't grasp exponential growth, but we were well on our way to well over 10,000 people dying every day. We prevented millions from dying by shutting down, and without a cure or vaccines nothing has changed significantly enough to stop that same result if we open up fully today.
Why can't people be allowed to weigh the risks and choose for themselves?
Because you aren't just risking your own life when you make those decisions. Lowering the infection rate is critical so far more important institutions can start opening up for everyone, such as schools. These will also raise infection rates, but if we can limit non-essential activities (such as theaters) enough we could potentially live with the increases from more essential ones.
We unfortunately live in a country where a huge percentage of the population reject scientific advice as a cultural badge of honor. Many of us aren't doing much to prove they have the capacity to make these decisions based on their words and actions.
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If you think we can't go back to normal if there's a chance someone might get sick, you are a coward not worth listening to. People are smart enough to judge their risk and take the appropriate steps. Treating them like children who can't be allowed outside lest they catch a cold is not only bad p
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I don't think any of those are advisable at this point. So I'm part of the same people who say we can't open theaters or go to church also seem to think it's not okay to pack the streets with protesters*.
*scare quotes removed because protestors were really protesting, even if <1% of others in the crowds were provocateurs or looting gang members.
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People are smart enough to judge their risk and take the appropriate steps. Treating them like children who can't be allowed outside lest they catch a cold is not only bad policy, it is an insult.
Your trolling represents the exact reason why our society has not already opened up similarly to other developed countries. By first electing a moron to head the federal executive branch, and then pushing back against and refusing mainstream medical advice, you* have ensured our death rate stays far too high to enjoy a more rapid return to normal. The US had every opportunity to take this seriously and start more widespread opening of society in the summer, but we squandered it. We have proven within all re
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It's a virus that can certainly affect many more than the person going to the theater. If just the person going to the theater was at risk, then I'd have less of an issue with them doing so but when an infection can impact 10's or even 100's of people who chose not to go to the theater, then there's a problem.
Like secondhand smoke, your right to be infected and possibly die, ends at your mask.
There used to be a 'smoking' and 'non-smocking' section in restaurants. You used to be able to smoke in theaters, ai
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Oh, and the lies you've been told about second-hand smoke don't hold up. Do the math, it doesn't make sense for an expanding volume of exhaled gas to behave that way.
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Why can't people be allowed to weigh the risks and choose for themselves?
Because the virus doesn't respect personal boundaries. You didn't phrase that quite right, the question is: "Why can't people choose for themselves?" and the answer is, "Because their actions effect everyone."
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How warped you have gotten to realize the very reason you dad was fighting over there was to ensure a world where some little craven administrator did not have the power to unilaterally dictate how you live your life and what personal risks you are allowed to take.
People like you are perfectly happy to let some governor assume emergency powers for going on 9 months now! and terminate peoples livelihoods, curtail peoples right to peacefully assemble and worship as they choose without so much as a vote on the
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Damn, you have a myopic vision about freedom and the things we were fighting against in WWII.
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No I am not the one with they myopic vision here. I am the one who understands if they can close you business or tell you that you can't go to church because some not actually very dangerous statistically speaking respiratory disease, they can do anything for any reason at all. The fact you don't see beyond your panic is the myopia.
The tragedy isn't going to the movies (Score:2)
It's completely avoidable of course, but it would mean the government stepping in to help, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Many people (who are themselves rarely at risk for homelessness and starvation, Leopard's Eating Faces Meme not withstanding) have blocked it on moral grounds.
Government is, after all, the problem, not the solution.
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But if my generation has their movie releases delayed a year to save a million lives it is unacceptable. How pathetic are we?
Movie theaters don't matter to me.
I need to go to work and my kids need to go to school.
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Movie theaters don't matter to me.
I need to go to work and my kids need to go to school.
Agreed, which is among the primary reasons non-essential activities need to be reduced so very essential activities like in-person schooling can resume.
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Its not your choice, you MUST WAIT. You dont get to decide.
I could have gone to see Tenet this weekend, on IMAX if I wanted, but I hear it's not very good. I went to see Akira in a new 4K transfer, instead. In the theater was me in the front and two people in the back row, and that was it.
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People aren't going because they don't feel safe. They don't feel safe because of poor leadership and an insufficient response to the pandemic.
Re:Well Theaters are only slightly less infectious (Score:4, Insightful)
than the average ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese, so they have that going for them.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Greidinger emphasized that "there has been no evidence to date linking any COVID cases with cinemas."
Does he know about the "breathing" thing, and has he asked if cinema customers will need to do that during the movie? It might make a difference as far as, exactly where do you look for evidence linking an activity in an enclosed space to COVID.
Somebody tell him about breathing, please.
Re:Well Theaters are only slightly less infectious (Score:4, Insightful)
Somebody tell him about breathing, please.
It's not the breathing, it's the speaking. Speaking is what propels droplets into the air, especially when shouting or singing [cnn.com]. That's why you wear a mask when among other people.
This would be perfect in a theater since people shouldn't be talking during a movie anyway, but since theaters make their money on food and drinks, unless people exercise self-control and not talk, covid will spread.
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The three c's to avoid are closed spaces, crowds, and close contact. Theaters have spacious rooms, and usually have pretty good air conditioning and turnover of the air, with the seating spa
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Grocery stores are the safest place even mentioned in the thread, so.
But nobody trusts chain cinemas. That's the real reason they have to close down.
So Piracy Wins? (Score:1)
I guess they were right. Dern pirates win again!
Luckily, we still got video games. (Score:1)
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I've been rereading the Walking Dead comics. :) Seems appropriate.
[John]
Cinemas are open here in Australia (Score:4, Informative)
Here in Australia most cinemas (except in Victoria which is still dealing with a second wave outbreak) are open for business again. They are doing social distancing, crowd size limits and data collection (to allow for contact tracing should the worst happen). And increased cleaning and etc as well.
And I personally wouldn't have any problems visiting a cinema given that where I am here in Queensland hasn't seen a case in the community in 25 days. Only reason I haven't been is that there is nothing worth seeing right now (all the good stuff keeps being delayed leaving the crap I have no interest in like Trolls World Tour, some stupid GI Joe movie and that Wonder Woman sequel as the only things out there)
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They are open in most of the world. This article is about the US locations.
Must be nice (Score:2, Funny)
To not live in a virus ridden third world shithole like the USA.
Only USA affected (Score:2)
Regal and Cineworld are only closing their USA based locations, a very important distinction for the 90% of the world that isn't living in Trump's infectious hellhole.
That said our local Cineworld has reintroduced the no leaving policy i.e. no bathroom breaks since that would eliminate the careful seating system they put in place. That's a red line for me since I have a bladder like a pregnant woman.
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Ah, that would kill it for me, too. And it's also why I put more salt than I should on my theater popcorn.
Oh my God! They delayed Dune! (Score:2)
Nothing to investigate (Score:2)
This is a wonderful buying opportunity for the money managers of politicians who have back channels to legally make them rich.l in exchange for positions on something or other.
And ? (Score:2)
How To Improve Self Awareness In Simple Ways (Score:1)