Regal Cinemas will welcome back moviegoers to some of its theaters next month, its parent company Cineworld said Tuesday. The reopening of the country’s second largest theater chain will mark the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began that all three major theater companies in the U.S. are in operation.
London-based Cineworld said it would open some Regal theaters on April 2 with the limited release of “Godzilla vs. Kong.” More Regals will open on April 16 when “Mortal Kombat” is set to be released, Cineworld said.
Regal locations will be able to operate profitably, as many states have now relaxed their theater capacity restrictions, Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said in a statement.
“We have long-awaited this moment when we can welcome audiences back to our Regal theaters and restore our essential role within the communities we serve,” Greidinger said.
Regal’s 536 theaters have been closed since early October, with Cineworld officials on Tuesday saying they closed theaters in part because Hollywood studios stopped production on major films during the pandemic. Greidinger said U.S. theaters make up 75% of Cineworld’s business and added that the company was looking to reopen its U.K. theaters in May.
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The pandemic forced AMC, Cinemark, Regal and many other movie theater chains to temporarily close last year and, in doing so, it severely decreased profits across the cinema industry. Total box office sales fell to roughly $2 billion in 2020 after being around $11 billion in 2019 and $12 billion in 2018, according to estimates from Wedbush Securities.
AMC, the nation’s largest movie theater operator, now has most of its locations reopened. Cinemark, the third largest chain, reopened its locations last summer.
Wedbush analysts said North American box office sales are down 91% so far this year, but they expect ticket sales to improve in 2021 compared to last year.
Indeed, 2020 featured some particularly challenging months for movie theaters. Highly anticipated movie releases including “Wonder Woman 1984” and Disney Pixar’s “Soul” debuted on streaming services, skipping theater releases altogether. Some movie theater chains — including Alamo Drafthouse and Studio Movie Grill — filed for bankruptcy. At one point, AMC believed it would run out of cash by December, but then a wave of retail investors surprisingly poured $917 million into the company, effectively saving the theater chain from bankruptcy.
