Over the weekend, the Times of London reported that Regal Theaters, via their company Cineworld, were shutting down.
At first the company hemmed and hawed and said they were “considering” the move. But the reality was, the Times was right, and they were closing their doors, lowering their projectors, and unpopping the popcorn.
Today they announced it’s all over. Regal had been closed from mid March through July, then re-opened. So it’s not like their closing is a surprise, just how badly they handled it. In all 536 theaters in the US will close, 127 in the UK. Total jobs gone: 45,000.
But they have few movies to show. And when “No Time to Die” was moved to next April, they were finished. “We are like a grocery shop that doesn’t have vegetables, fruit, meat,” Cineworld CEO Moshe “Mooky” Greidinger said in an interview. “We cannot operate for a long time without a product.”
My thanks to all the Regal execs in Knoxville and Chattanooga who refused to return calls or emails on Friday night. It’s unclear if they’re losing their jobs.
