The last major theater chain holdout has scheduled its reopening date, as Cineworld’s Regal Cinemas has announced (via THR) that select theaters will open its doors on April 2, just in time for Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla vs. Kong.” And with that, not only do we see the next major hurdle for the theatrical release business finished, but also, WB has officially unveiled its plans for theatrical exclusivity in 2022.

Continue reading Regal Cinemas To Reopen In April After Warner Bros. Strikes Deal For Theatrical Exclusivity In 2022 at The Playlist.

A metaphorical bomb was dropped yesterday in the world of the film industry. Though the bomb was not a real explosive, there has already been significant real-world damage to theater chains such as AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, and more, as WarnerMedia announced plans to release its entire 2021 Warner Bros. film slate simultaneously in theaters and HBO Max. After the announcement, stock prices tumbled for the major theater chains as people started to really see the writing on the wall—movie theaters are never going to be the same again.

Continue reading AMC & Regal Cinemas Respond To WarnerMedia’s HBO Max Release Strategy at The Playlist.

Regal Cinemas, in the US at least, is closed down completely, right now. That’s hundreds of locations around the country with their doors locked and no movies playing on its various massive screens. To the layperson, having no customers seems worse than having some customers, right? Well, apparently not, as the company believes that it saves more money with no business than just having slow ticket sales and higher operational costs.

Continue reading Cineworld CEO Confirms Regal Will Be Shut Down Until 2021 As Company Secures Some Additional Funding at The Playlist.

Remember last month when Cineworld, the parent company behind Regal Cinemas, announced that it would be closing the bulk of its theaters in the US and the UK? At the time, the reason was the fact that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wasn’t opening theaters in the state and it was negatively affecting the entire industry. Well, Cuomo did allow for New York theaters to reopen (outside of NYC, at least), and Regal opened the doors to a handful of cinemas in the state.

Continue reading Regal Shuts Down Remaining Theaters In The US But IMAX CEO Claims COVID-19 Vaccine Is A “Game Changer” at The Playlist.

With yesterday’s confirmation from Cineworld, the parent company of Regal Cinemas, that the company would be closing all of its US and UK movie theaters “until further notice,” film fans (and box office analysts) feared the worst. When would AMC follow suit? And would this be the final nail in the coffin of theater exhibition in 2020 (and possibly forever)? Well, AMC isn’t ready to close its doors.

Continue reading AMC Will Stay Open Despite Regal Closings & Credits “Groundbreaking” Deal With Universal As The Reason at The Playlist.

As the business week begins today, we’re already seeing massive financial implications from the news of “No Time to Die” being delayed and Cineworld shutting down its US and UK cinemas. And according to a new interview with THR, financial analyst Eric Wold believes that the next two months are going to be a “virtual ghost town” for theatrical releases and that studios need to be willing to take financial risks to ensure that cinemas will be viable when states fully reopen sometime in the future.

Continue reading Analyst Says Studios Have To Be “Willing To Take A Hit” For Theaters To Survive at The Playlist.

The fallout of the “No Time to Die” delay has had an absolutely massive effect on the future of the theatrical business. Not only is it likely that other films will move out of 2020 and take their chances in 2021, but Cineworld (parent company of Regal Cinemas and the second-largest theater chain in the world) has also decided to close its doors beginning this week due to the lack of business.

Continue reading Cineworld CEO Blames NY Governor’s “Inflexibility” For Causing Company To Shut Down U.S. & U.K. Theaters Again at The Playlist.

Cinemas around the world are in trouble. I know, I know, this is shocking, right? Well, the truth is that with each passing quarter, the financial disclosures from the large cinema chains are getting more and more grim. We have AMC talking about how the company needs to finish 2020 strong or face serious financial consequences (aka going out of business). And now, with Cineworld (parent company of Regal Cinemas and the #2 theater chain in the world), we’re beginning to see that the losses are massive, but there may just be hope for the future.

Continue reading Regal Cinemas’ Parent Company Reports Losses Of $1.6B & Warns Of “No Certainty” Ahead at The Playlist.

“Our main message now to our customers is: Come back to the cinemas that you love, because they are safe and they are waiting for you.” So said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, during a virtual press conference last week, but he wasn’t just speaking for Cineworld, which owns Regal Theaters and is the second-largest cinema chain on the globe (behind AMC). The event was a webinar sponsored by the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), with Greidinger joined by representatives from AMC, Marcus Theatres, Cinemark, and IMAX to announce the implementation of “CinemaSafe,” a coordinated set of nationwide health and safety protocols, to be followed by all participating theaters and chains (“over 340 companies representing over 32,000 screens nationwide,” according to the CinemaSafe website).

Continue reading Just How Safe Are NATO’s “CinemaSafe” Health & Safety Protocols? We Asked Health Experts To Review The Risks at The Playlist.

Last weekend, AMC, Regal, and many other cinemas reopened for the first time in five months, since they were all shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And while the box office numbers weren’t what you would call “massive,” the Russell Crowe film, “Unhinged,” did bring in around $4 million and showed that there are people that are ready to go back to the cinema.

Continue reading Cineworld CEO Is “Encouraged” By The Weekend’s Box Office & Says People Are “Eager” To Return To Cinemas at The Playlist.

Following in the wake of similar announcements by AMC Theatres now that more concrete cinema release dates for new films have been decided (mainly “Tenet”), Regal Cinemas, has announced that it will begin to reopen its U.S. locations starting from August 21.

Cineworld, the U.K. cinema chain that recently acquired Regal, made the announcement on Monday afternoon following Warner Bros.

Continue reading Regal Cinemas To Re-Open U.S. Movie Theaters On August 21 at The Playlist.

So far, we’ve heard from AMC Theatres and Cinemark about their plans to reopen cinemas in North America by July to welcome aboard Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” the film industry’s hope to save the summer movie season. However, we still didn’t know what Regal Cinemas had planned. Well, unsurprisingly, it appears that Cineworld, the parent company to Regal, is following the lead of its competition.

Continue reading Regal’s Parent Company Says All Its Cinemas Will Reopen In July…If ‘Tenet’ Arrives at The Playlist.

After weeks of Universal touting the success of its straight-to-VOD strategy for “Trolls World Tour” (with the studio claiming that a theatrical release will come eventually), it appears that the cinema chains are fed up. Earlier, we saw AMC effectively ban all Universal projects from its theaters due to the studio’s release strategy, and now, we have Cineworld (the owners of Regal Cinemas, the second-largest theater chain) making a strong stand, as well.

Continue reading Regal’s Parent Company Calls Universal’s VOD Strategy “Completely Inappropriate” at The Playlist.