Regal Closing 13 Maryland Theaters, All Nationwide, Temporarily

MARYLAND — Regal Cinemas will close its 543 theaters in the United States Thursday due to continued revenue losses from the coronavirus pandemic. The chain has 13 locations in Maryland.

On Monday morning, Cineworld confirmed it would suspend operations in the United States and United Kingdom starting Thursday, Oct. 8, and there was no reopening date set.

Prolonged closures and the reluctance of motion picture companies to release new films in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic drove the move, according to Cineworld.

"This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable reopenings in all of our markets — including meeting, and often exceeding, local health and safety guidelines in our theatres and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry," Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said in a statement.

Theaters are among the many businesses hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. They were allowed to reopen Sept. 4 in Maryland after being forced to close March 19 to prevent the spread of the virus. In September, Cineworld reported a $1.6 billion loss for the first six months of the year before taxes.

In Maryland, Regal operates 13 theaters:

• Regal Bel Air Cinema, Abingdon
• Regal Bowie, Bowie
• Regal UA Snowden Square, Columbia
• Regal Westview & IMAX, Frederick
• Regal Waugh Chapel & IMAX, Gambrills
• Regal Germantown, Germantown
• Regal Valley Mall, Hagerstown
• Regal Hunt Valley, Hunt Valley
• Regal Hyattsville Royale, Hyattsville
• Regal Laurel Towne Centre, Laurel
• Regal Rockville Center, Rockville
• Regal Salisbury & RPX, Salisbury
• Regal Majestic & IMAX, Silver Spring

"Cineworld will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations in these markets 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," Greidinger said in a statement to investors Monday.

The company reports 45,000 employees will be impacted by the suspension of operations.

Regal is the second-largest theater chain in the United States after AMC.

Its decision comes on the heels of MGM's Oct. 2 announcement it was delaying the release of its newest James Bond film, "No Time To Die," from November until April 2, 2021.

Coronavirus has also pushed back the release of dozens of movies, including expected blockbusters like "Black Widow," which was originally set for release on May 1 (now tentatively expected in theaters May 7, 2021), "Wonder Woman 1984" (moved from a June 1 release to Christmas Day) and "The Batman" (moved from June 2021 to October 2021).

Running a theater without new releases was "like a grocery shop that doesn't have vegetables, fruit, meat," Greidinger told the Wall Street Journal. "We cannot operate for a long time without a product."

— By Elizabeth Janney and Shannon Antinori

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