On Monday, CEO Mooky Greidinger announced that they will be temporarily closing Regal theaters in its U.S. and U.K. locations because of the lack of blockbuster movies being put out during the pandemic. David Madden said,“The industry was rocketed by the first pandemic being closed for months and then operating at a small capacity.”

 Having major blockbuster movies to play was a really big issue after theaters were allowed to open. Florida this year waited to open their doors for movies like Christopher Nolan’s Tenet to hit the screen. The new James Bond film No Time to Die was delayed in April, so it could  be viewed by “a worldwide Theatrical audience,” according to the James Bond website. 

Because of the theater having a capacity of 50%, the company feared that they wouldn’t survive the pandemic when its shares in London plummeted to 42% on Monday, September 28. This surprised many of the U.K. workers, as they were not informed of this decision taking place having many of the staff tweeting, “There has been no consultation with staff whatsoever.” 

The good news is that the company will continue to watch how high and low the cases are which means there is still hope for the Regal Cinemas theater reopening in the future. 

This is where online streaming comes into place. Even though theaters are closing down around us that doesn’t mean watching movies has to come to an end. There are still many streaming services out there that are constantly releasing new movies, TV shows, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus and any other streaming services.