Arts & Entertainment
Regal Theatres Closing In Florida, Nationwide Temporarily
Regal is closing 46 theaters in Florida indefinitely, according to parent company Cineworld.
FLORIDA — Regal Cinemas will close its 543 theaters in the United States Thursday due to continued revenue losses from the coronavirus pandemic. The chain has nearly 50 locations in Florida.
On Monday morning, Cineworld confirmed it would suspend operations in the United States and United Kingdom starting Thursday, Oct. 8, and there was no reopening date set.
Prolonged closures and the reluctance of motion picture companies to release new films in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic drove the move, according to Cineworld.
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"This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable reopenings in all of our markets — including meeting, and often exceeding, local health and safety guidelines in our theatres and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry," Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said in a statement.
Theaters were forced to close in spring to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and were allowed to reopen June 5 in Florida at 50 percent capacity. In September, Cineworld reported a $1.6 billion loss for the first six months of the year before taxes, according to Marketwatch.
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Regal is the second-largest theater chain in the United States after AMC. The company reports 45,000 jobs will be impacted by the suspension of operations.
In Florida, Regal operates 46 theaters:
- Jacksonville, Regal Avenues 4DX & RPX
- Fort Myers, Regal Belltower & ScreenX
- Plantation, Regal Broward & RPX
- Gainesville, Regal Butler Town Center
- Gainesville, Regal Celebration Pointe & RPX
- Inverness, Regal Citrus Cinemas
- Tampa, Regal Citrus Park
- Estero, Regal Coconut Point
- Crystal River, Regal Crystal River Mall
- Fort Lauderdale, Regal Cypress Creek Station
- Lake Wales, Regal Eagle Ridge Mall
- Tallahassee, Regal Governor's Square
- Fort Myers, Regal Gulf Coast & IMAX
- Naples, Regal Hollywood - Naples
- Port Richey, Regal Hollywood - Port Richey
- Sarasota, Regal Hollywood - Sarasota
- Ocala, Regal Hollywood ScreenX & IMAX - Ocala
- Miami, Regal Kendall Village 4DX, IMAX & RPX
- Key West, Regal Key West
- Largo, Regal Largo Mall
- Coral Springs, Regal Magnolia Place
- Bradenton, Regal Oakmont
- Hollywood, Regal Oakwood
- Ormond Beach, Regal Ormond Beach Cinema
- Oviedo, Regal Oviedo Mall
- Pinellas Park, Regal Park Place & RPX
- Port Orange, Regal Pavilion & RPX
- Orlando, Regal Pointe Orlando 4DX & IMAX
- Jacksonville, Regal River City Marketplace
- Royal Palm Beach, Regal Royal Palm Beach & RPX
- Gainesville, Regal Royal Park
- Mary Esther, Regal Santa Rosa
- Sunrise, Regal Sawgrass & IMAX
- Boca Raton, Regal Shadowood
- Miami Beach, Regal South Beach ScreenX, IMAX & VIP
- Miami, Regal Southland Mall
- Fort Walton Beach, Regal Sun Plaza
- Kissimmee, Regal The Loop & RPX
- Port Charlotte, Regal Town Center - Port Charlotte
- Jensen Beach, Regal Treasure Coast Mall
- Lake City, Regal UA Cinema 90
- Miami, Regal UA Falls
- Orlando, Regal Waterford Lakes 4DX & IMAX
- Apopka, Regal Wekiva Riverwalk
- Pembroke Pines, Regal Westfork
- Winter Park, Regal Winter Park Village & RPX
"Cineworld will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations in these markets at the appropriate time, when key markets have more concrete guidance on their reopening status and, in turn, studios are able to bring their pipeline of major releases back to the big screen," Greidinger said in a statement to investors Monday.
Its decision comes on the heels of MGM's Oct. 2 announcement it was delaying the release of its newest James Bond film, "No Time To Die," from November until April 2, 2021.
Coronavirus has also pushed back the release of dozens of movies, including expected blockbusters like "Black Widow," which was originally set for release on May 1 (now tentatively expected in theaters May 7, 2021), "Wonder Woman 1984" (moved from a June 1 release to Christmas Day) and "The Batman" (moved from June 2021 to October 2021).
Running a theater without new releases was "like a grocery shop that doesn't have vegetables, fruit, meat," Greidinger told the Wall Street Journal. "We cannot operate for a long time without a product."
— By Elizabeth Janney and Shannon Antinori
See Also: Most Florida Bars, Movie Theaters, Tattoo Shops Get OK To Reopen
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