M+E Connections

As if the growing number of delayed theatrical movie releases wasn’t bad enough news for the U.S. film exhibition market, Regal Cinemas parent company Cineworld announced Oct. 5 that it will be temporarily suspending operations at all of its 536 Regal theatres in the U.S., as of Oct. 8.

The decision was made “in response to an increasingly challenging theatrical landscape and sustained key market closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the company said.

The news came only three days after MGM, Universal and film producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced the release of No Time To Die, the 25^th film in the James Bond series, is being further delayed – this time until April 2, 2021 — “in order to be seen by a worldwide theatrical audience.”

And we shouldn’t be too surprised to see even more movie theaters close temporarily – or even permanently – and more major film releases to be delayed, according to Jeff Bock, senior media analyst at Exhibitor Relations.

“The number of movie theaters that will close on a permanent basis will be directly proportional to how long it takes the US to stomp out the virus — I don’t think that point can be argued any further,” he told MESA by email, adding: “Until then, unfortunately, escapism will have to take a back seat.”

After all, “the audience dictates the marketplace, not the other way around [and] the overwhelming majority of traditional moviegoers just aren’t ready to experience films in theaters, no matter how good the films are, or how many cleaning upgrades a theatre has made,” he said.

Not helping the sector any is that the industry “can’t rely on buzz words, pulled quotes and over-sized marquees to drum up interest right now,” he said, noting: “The old ways of attracting an audience are gone. For now. In the meantime, it will be up to individual theatres and chains to decide if they should furlough or not, or continue to operate with library titles, indies and the occasional studio throwaway. I do not envy the decisions these theater owners will have to make in the very near future.”

And it is possible we may face even bleaker exhibition news if the current situation continues beyond he first half of 2021, according to Bock, who said: “We also have to prepare for the inevitability that one (or more) of the major chains — AMC, Regal, Cinemark — may not survive if this goes into next summer.”

However, just because Regal is taking the drastic step it is right now doesn’t mean we should necessarily write off its return, according to Bock, who predicted the brand could certainly survive, especially if theaters are able to all open again before the summer. “They may just have to downsize a bit when they return,” he said, predicting the company will probably open its theaters on a regional basis when it decides the time is right, starting with “top grossing theaters.”

As for other major exhibitors potentially following Regal’s move in the near future, Bock told MESA: “I’m not sure we’ll see AMC do that, but it all depends on how films are met by audiences week to week. We’ve seen a steady decline since Labor Day, and I don’t see any films on the release calendar right now that will change that anytime soon, unfortunately.”

It was “anyone’s guess” what film releases get pushed for theatrical release, Bock said. “However, I can’t see how [Warner Bros.] makes the same mistake again,” he noted, pointing out that studio has “already taken a hit domestically” with the recent theatrical release of Tenet after a delay. As a result of the disappointing box office performance by that eagerly-anticipated, Christopher Nolan-directed film, Warner is “certainly not going to be next up in dropping another blockbuster in the marketplace,” he predicted.

“Disney may take that chance” with its upcoming Pixar animated film Soul, but “it’s doubtful family films (which would include WW84) would do major business unless a vaccine sweeps the nation before the end of 2020 [and] that sounds like a Christmas miracle,” he said.

As of Oct. 5, Soul was still expected to be released theatrically Nov. 20, while Warner’s Wonder Woman 1984 (WW84) was still expected to be released theatrically Dec. 25.

“For now, a combination of theatrical and VOD will likely take center stage until we stomp this virus out,” predicted Bock.

Cineworld’s decision to close all U.S. – and U.K. — Regal theaters was “not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support a safe and sustainable reopening in the U.S. — from putting in place robust health and safety measures at our theatres to joining our industry in making a collective commitment to the CinemaSafe protocols to reaching out to state and local officials to educate them on these initiatives,” according to Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger.

“We are especially grateful for and proud of the hard work our employees put in to adapt our theatres to the new protocols and cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was,” he said in a statement.

However, “as major U.S. markets, mainly New York, remained closed and without guidance on reopening timing, studios have been reluctant to release its pipeline of new films,” Cineworld pointed out in its announcement. “In turn, without these new releases, Cineworld cannot provide customers in both the U.S. and U.K. – the company’s primary markets – with the breadth of strong commercial films necessary for them to consider coming back to theaters against the backdrop of COVID-19,” it said, adding “the closures will impact approximately 40,000 employees across the U.S.”

Regal “will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations 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,” Cineworld said.