Photo: Queens Post
Oct. 5, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Regal will temporarily cease all U.S. and U.K. operations beginning Thursday as movie theaters in New York remain closed amid the ongoing pandemic.
Cineworld, the parent company of Regal, announced the suspension today, which will impact 40,000 employees across the U.S.
“This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support a safe and sustainable reopening in the U.S.,” said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld.
The company cited the closed New York market — a key market for the movie industry — as a major driver of the decision.
There are multiple Regal theaters in Queens, including the Regal UA Midway in Forest Hills, Regal Atlas Park in Glendale and the Regal UA Kaufman Astoria in Long Island City.
“Despite our work, positive feedback from our customers and the fact that there has been no evidence to date linking any COVID cases with cinemas, we have not been given a route to reopen in New York, although other indoor activities – like indoor dining, bowling and casinos were already allowed,” Greidinger said.
Cineworld said that studios have been reluctant to release new films without the New York theaters open. In turn, Regal lacks a line-up of strong commercial films to entice customers across the country to return to theaters amid the threat of COVID-19.
“The prolonged closures have had a detrimental impact on the release slate for the rest of the year, and, in turn, our ability to supply our customers with the lineup of blockbusters they’ve come to expect from us,” the CEO said. “As such, it is simply impossible to continue operations in our primary markets.”
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12 Comments
By the time they reopen people will be used to watching movies online and many movie theaters may just close permanently. With everything that is happening people are more aware of how germs can spread so easily.
Trump personally spreading COVID to half of the White House shows how we need to take this seriously. I miss the movies!
The increase of crime, the budget crisis, the reopening of schools, the homeless situation , NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio is incompetent. He should be fined and taken out of office for dereliction of duty.
Fortunately, Hollywood doesn’t make movies worth seeing anymore, so this works out well.
Fortunately, Fox News doesn’t make programming worth seeing anymore, just cult indoctrination.
Rachel Maddow is lovely and amazing as is Chris Hayes. Pravda approves their messaging. MSLSD is the commie news network.
@chinaisnear- Funny nobody mentioned Racheal Maddow or anyone else or anything else for that matter. Your response is a typical type of response from someone indoctrinated into a cult. Deflect from the accusations and attack a cult created adversary.
WTF has Fox News got to do with this? Maybe you should stop watching it if you hate it so much. Go watch Rachel Madcow on PMSNBC. She’s in full Trump derangement mode too.
Fact Check ,Don’t mess with the cult. Deflect from the actions of your cult and invoke the name of the cult created adversary. Fox is not news. Fact! Obviously you can’t dispute that fact so you’re conditioned to deflect and turn the spot light onto a Fox created adversary.
i guess that puts the kibosh on the theater that is being built on queens blvd and 38th. is it still a slab of concrete? nothing has been done for years now.
I was excited about the possibility of movie theaters opening. Cautious but excited. What can we do. Its the new normal i guess.
No it’s not the new normal. This is tyranny disguised as safety. Rebellion becomes duty.