Regal Cinemas will close 39 of its U.S. theatres after its parent company Cineworld filed for bankruptcy last year.
According to Variety, Cineworld will abandon leases for the 39 theaters starting Feb. 15. Cineworld said in the company’s latest bankruptcy filing that the monthly rent per theater increased by nearly 30% between 2019 and 2022, despite a massive decline in domestic box office ticket sales during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Business Insider reports that the Gallery Place Stadium 14 theatre in Washington, D.C., as well as the Bowie Stadium 14 and Rockville Center Stadium 13 theatres in Bowie and Rockville, are among the 39 theatres slated for closure.
The Regal Majestic theatre at 900 Ellsworth Dr. in the Downtown Silver Spring development, which was renovated in 2017, will remain open.
“In total, the Debtors estimate that rejecting the Leases will save their estates approximately $22 million annually,” Cineworld said in their latest bankruptcy filing.
According to a statement released last year, Cineworld, which has theaters in ten countries, including the U.S. and UK, was experiencing low admissions due to a lack of big-budget movies and warned of the possibility of bankruptcy.
Cineworld filed for bankruptcy last September.
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.
“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.”
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