The locations to be shuttered include seven multiplexes in California and six in New York.
As Cineworld continues its bankruptcy proceedings, its subsidiary Regal Cinemas will close 39 theater locations starting next month, The Wrap has reported. The iconic Sherman Oaks Galleria location that the cinema chain had acquired from the defunct Arclight Cinemas, in June 2021, is among the locations set to close down.
Per the report, Regal Cinemas will begin rejecting leases for the closing locations on February 15. In the bankruptcy filings, post-pandemic costs like rising rent fueled by deferred payments from the pandemic are listed as as the main reason for the closures. It further claimed that the average monthly rent per theater increased by 30% from 2019 to 2022. The new filing states:
The pandemic has had quite an impact on the theatre business and now the tolls are taking effect. Currently, Cineworld has a $4.8 billion debt, taking a $3 billion loss in 2020 as theaters worldwide were shuttered. While the box office has improved over the past year with a domestic total of $7.38 billion, up from the $4.4 billion grossed in 2021, thanks to features like Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage among many others that pulled the audience back to the cinema. Still, in contrast, that total is roughly $4 billion less than the $11.3 billion grossed in North America in 2019.
