Cineworld Group — the world’s second-largest movie chain operator and owner of Regal Cinemas — is preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to reports.
The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Cineworld is preparing to file a chapter 11 petition in the United States and is also considering insolvency proceedings in the United Kingdom.
In a statement Wednesday and reported by Reuters, Regal Cinemas, which operates in 10 countries, including the U.S. and UK, said a lack of big-budget movies negatively impacted admissions and could last until November. “We don’t have anything to add beyond the statement we made on Wednesday,” a spokesperson for the company said to Reuters this morning.
Regal Cinemas shut down all 500 of its locations twice as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, following a cascade of postponements for big-budget Hollywood films, most recently the James Bond title “No Time to Die.”
“We are like a grocery shop that doesn’t have vegetables, fruit, meat,” Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said in an October 2020 interview with The Wall Street Journal. “We cannot operate for a long time without a product.”
Regal Cinemas’ area locations include the Regal Majestic at 900 Ellsworth Drive in Downtown Silver Spring, which was renovated in 2017, as well as theaters in Rockville, Germantown, Laurel, Bowie and Hyattsville, Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va.
Photo by David Lay