Regal theaters in Fresno, Valley to close, as coronavirus impacts national movie releases
Several large Regal Cinemas movie theaters across Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley will close temporarily on Thursday due to a lack of blockbuster releases to supply the market.
Although Regal officials said the closure is temporary, they have not given a date for when the theaters will reopen.
Cineworld Group, a British company that owns 536 theaters in the U.S., announced Monday the closure of theaters comes amid the delayed release of the new James Bond film “No Time to Die.”
Some 40,000 U.S. jobs are at stake as a result of the indefinite closures.
Slated to come out this fall, the Bond film was pushed to April in just the latest postponement. It has been delayed multiple times over concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cineworld noted in a release that an “increasingly challenging theatrical landscape” plus “sustained key market closures” due to the coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on the industry.
“As major US. markets, mainly New York, remained closed and without guidance on reopening timing, studios have been reluctant to release their pipeline of new films. In turn, without these new releases, Cineworld cannot provide customers in both the U.S. and the U.K. — the company’s primary markets — with the breadth of strong commercial films necessary for them to consider coming back to theaters against the backdrop of COVID-19,” the release.
Regal owns four of the six theaters in the Fresno area that show big studio films — Edwards, Manchester, UA Broadway Faire and UA Clovis. There are also two Regal theaters each in Visalia and Merced.
Perhaps a sign of the company’s optimism, the Edwards theater in River Park has been under a remodel in recent months.
“This isn’t a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable reopenings in all our markets — including meeting, and often exceeding, local health and safety guidelines in our theaters and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry,” Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said in a statement.
There are still a few movies planned for the big screen this year. Pixar’s “Soul” and Warner Bros. films like “Dune” and “Wonder Woman 1984” are among a few other big movies still slated for November and December, according to Variety.
Theaters across California had been closed for several months starting in March. Regal reopened theaters in mid-August with precautions in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including mask requirements, contact-less ticket services and seating limited in theaters to 50% capacity, McClatchy News previously reported.
Individual theaters were also thoroughly sanitized after each showing.
Cineworld said it’s monitoring the situation closely and will announce reopenings “when key markets have more concrete guidance ... and studios are able to bring their pipeline of major releases back to the big screen.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 11:04 AM with the headline "Regal theaters in Fresno, Valley to close, as coronavirus impacts national movie releases."
