5 Regal movie theaters to close in SWFL as parent company struggles

Writer: Drew Hill
Published: Updated:
A lone pedestrian is seen walking past a closed Regal Cinemas in Los Angeles, California on June 16, 2020, as much of the entertainment world has been shutdown since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. – Regal Cinemas announced on June 16 that they will reopen movie theaters on July 10 with safety guidelines, such as mask wearing, in place. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) via CBS Los Angeles.

Shares in the company that owns the Regal, Cineworld and Picturehouse movie theaters fell as much as 58% after it said it will temporarily close the venues because delays to the latest James Bond film left it with few blockbusters to attract customers during the pandemic.

Cineworld Group Plc said Monday that 536 Regal cinemas in the U.S. and 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse venues in the U.K. would close on Thursday. Some 45,000 employees are affected.

In Southwest Florida, Regal owns a 20-screen location at Bell Tower Shops and a 16-screen location at Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers, a 16-screen location at Coconut Point in Estero, a 20-screen location in Naples, and a 16-screen location at Town Center Mall in Port Charlotte. There is no word on how many employees at those locations will be affected.

The company has high debts and is, like the wider industry, struggling with the effects of the pandemic. It said that with major markets such as New York closed and no guidance on when they will reopen, “studios have been reluctant to release their pipeline of new films.”

Without these releases, the company can’t give customers “the breadth of strong commercial films necessary for them to consider coming back to theaters against the backdrop of COVID-19.’’

Restaurants usually look for busy areas to set up shop. Places where there’s a movie theater usually qualify. but without moviegoers, since COVID has closed many movie theaters, restaurants aren’t doing well either.

“There definitely is an effect,” said Brad Cozza form The Roots Restaurant and Treehouse Rooftop Lounge.

At Bell Tower, there are several options. And Cozza knows that having his location near Regal Cinemas helps his business. “Having that connection to so close to the movie theater it does provide a lot of walkthrough traffic,” he said.

But, as mentioned above, Regal is closing this location and two others. So the surrounding bars and restaurants will fell financial pain once again.

Island Cinema on Sanibel Island changed its model; you can now rent out space while they’re closed. Families can bring gaming systems or DVDs to use on the big screen for $200.

“We’re just trying to cover a little bit of our costs,” said Callie johnson with Island Cinema.

While she would love to get back to normal, she still doesn’t know if that will ever be possible. “Even if we did want to start operating again as we were before last March I don’t think that would work we wouldn’t have anything to show people,” said  Johnson

“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 theaters and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry,” said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld.

Cineworld shares fell as low as 15.64 pounds in London and were down 31% at 27.41 in morning trading.

The industry had been rocked by the pandemic – first being closed for months and then operating at a fraction of previous capacity, said David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets. Cineworld had also been highly leveraged, having largely funded its acquisition of Regal Entertainment in 2018 through debt.

“Today the company confirmed they will be assessing their liquidity options, and it plans to update the market on the resumption of business in due course,” he said. “It seems that Cineworld is hunkering down and they are holding onto their current liquidity position, with the view to probably having a reduced service when they re-open.”

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