Printable version of thread
Click here to view this topic in its original format
BuzzJack Music Forum _ Movies and Theatre _ Cineworld to close all 128 UK cinemas
Posted by: Crazy Chris 4th October 2020, 08:00 AM
After news that the new Bond film is delayed again until April.
From ITV News.
CINEWORLD is set to shut all 128 of its theatres in the UK and Ireland after Covid caused the last James Bond film to be pushed back until spring.
The delay until April, announced on Friday, has plunged cinemas into financial crisis - costing top chains up to £50million.
Cineworld is believed to be “on the brink” after shares dropped by 2.5 per cent.
It had already lost £1.3billion globally due to the virus and cut entry to £4 to coax back punters.
According to the Sunday Times, the chain is drawing up plans to close all its UK sites as early as this week, putting 5,500 jobs at risk.
The majority of the chain’s staff will be asked to accept redundancy, with possible incentives to rejoin the company when theatres reopen.
The company has written to PM Boris Johnson and Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to say that the industry has become “un-viable” because of the postponement of this year’s biggest blockbuster.
No Time to Die — starring Daniel Craig and co-written by Killing Eve’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge — was hoped to match the success of the 2015 Bond movie Spectre, which made £80million at UK box offices.
In 2012 Bond movie Skyfall raked in a record £103million here.
Jane Crowther, editor of Total Film, told The Sun on Sunday: “I’m massively surprised by this decision.
“It’s a disaster for UK cinemas and it will cost them, conservatively £50million in the short run. They’ll hope to make the money back next April but who knows how many cinemas will still be open then to show it?”
Cineworld had hoped that the new Bond movie would increase their
A source said: “Cineworld were very hopeful the Bond movie would be their saviour in these difficult times. Bosses will be very worried about the firm’s future.”
Cinemas had experienced a much-needed shot in the arm in August when Christopher Nolan’s action thriller Tenet took £5.4million in the UK in its first weekend.
The film was the first big blockbuster to be released since theatres were shut in March.
No Time to Die, the 25th Bond film, had already been put back once with producers desperate to recoup the record £200million it cost to make.
A second global advertising campaign, worth £100million alone, was already well under way while promotional campaigns and product placement deals had been launched with sponsors including Heineken, Bollinger, Aston Martin and Nokia.
The film’s official podcast aired on Wednesday and the video for Billie Eilish’s title song was released on Friday.
'SIGNIFICANT LOSSES'
Cinemas were planning to leave the film running for weeks, and it was assumed that since major markets such as China were open, no more delays would be needed.
Cineworld said it had reopened 561 out of 778 sites worldwide as lockdown restrictions have been eased.
Leading film lawyer Nick Miller said: “Clearly, it’s a huge problem for cinemas in the short term as Bond joins the list of other event films postponed until 2021.
“The decision to postpone further is easy to understand with further lockdowns and restrictions in place or imminent in the UK and other key international markets.
“The losses are significant and how many cinemas, particularly the independents, will be able to survive without revenue from Bond and other event films this year?”
A spokesman for Cineworld declined to comment.
Posted by: Crazy Chris 4th October 2020, 08:01 AM
Sad. There's a big one near us. I hear our Showcase is in trouble too. It re-opened showing mainly old films alongside the few new releases but people just aren't going still.
Posted by: Suedehead2 4th October 2020, 08:04 AM
My local Cineworld underwent a major refurbishment during lockdown so this is a surprise.
Posted by: Crazy Chris 4th October 2020, 08:05 AM
It's not saying if they'll close for good or just until the Bond film comes out.
£4 entry sounds very good. I may even have gone at that price! Haven't been for years.
Posted by: Wall 4th October 2020, 08:14 AM
Oh wow!
Posted by: T Boy 4th October 2020, 09:01 AM
This is pretty depressing. I was supporting my Cineworld when they first reopened but since having to go back to work, finding time to go has been difficult.
Posted by: Klaus 4th October 2020, 09:20 AM
Whilst this obviously has wider implications, I’m going to move this to Movies as thing it has a significant impact on the movie/cinema industry... 
My local cinema is a Cineworld so this is pretty upsetting if true. I can understand it though given there’s no releases coming out, with everything either going on streaming or pushed back to next year. I still don’t understand Disney’s decision to release Mulan here on Disney+ when Tenet showed there are chances for cinema in the UK.
It’s alright for movie studios to push their films back but there might be nothing to release them in if they leave it too late!
Posted by: Quarantilas 4th October 2020, 09:32 AM
I think this is the perfect case study into why capitalism and the short termism & shareholder focus it requires to survive is a failed economic model. They’re prioritising their bottom line, so they can pay dividends and keep share prices high which through absolutely no coincidence drive performance related bonuses for the board. By doing so they threaten the viability of their entire industry.
With the refusal to work with Netflix and Amazon in order to give off their content into their own silos these studios were already showing they’d learned nothing at all from the structural causes of piracy and now again they’re not looking beyond shareholder dividends.
This short term focus is running the risk of, as Klaus points out, there being no cinema industry for these films to open in. Realistically you’re gonna see chains survive in major cities but there will be a lot of midsized towns that see their one cinema shut and you’ll see millions of people with no easily accessible place now have no where to go and correspondingly they will take millions upon millions of pounds away from these studios because they won’t have the blockbuster releases accessible to them in a way that isn’t piracy.
Ultimately, yet again the big studios endanger the environment they operate in and fuel the fire on their own collapse but funnelling more people toward piracy
Posted by: Jack 4th October 2020, 09:43 AM
I'm devastated. I love the cinema so much and you really can't have the same experience if you watch at home in my opinion. I really hope this isn't a sign of things to come and the other major cinema outlets, and independent ones too, manage to survive this somehow. The gov really needs to do SOMETHING.
Posted by: ✖ leww ✖ 4th October 2020, 10:03 AM
oh no!! 
Posted by: dandy* 4th October 2020, 10:50 AM
I agree with Silas, these firms make their own destiny through their choices to protect dividends over viability. I don’t want to see the government step in to support any of those companies, I’d rather they supported alternatives that are more focused on the wider community needs.
Posted by: Chez Wombat 4th October 2020, 11:34 AM
There wasn't any particularly near me, but wow what a shame. Can't be too long until some other cinemas start closing, my local Odeon looks at risk :'( I know Tenet's box office wasn't roaring, but people still definitely went out to see it, and I think Mulan could've done the same. It's gotta be something they adjust to or the other chains will follow suit, it looks like December before the next really big release and they could be pushed back too :/
Posted by: Suedehead2 4th October 2020, 12:39 PM
£4 entry sounds very good. I may even have gone at that price! Haven't been for years.
The BBC report says that, for now at least, it is a temporary closure. It suggests they will be closed at least until the new year.
Posted by: J🐠hq 4th October 2020, 12:50 PM
Gutted if this is true, hoping it's just a move to try and force the hand of people higher up - Tenet had a great opening weekend so I think they should've just gone ahead with the new Bond movie
I've had a lot of loyalty to Cineworld and kept my Unlimited card active throughout this year even though I've only been back once since they re-opened
The one at the O2 which I used to visit a lot had a big refurbishment and expansion just last summer, including adding five new massive screens
Posted by: Esmerelda 4th October 2020, 02:34 PM
Unfortunately probably the beginning of the end for cinemas. The situation won't be improving any time in the foreseeable future. Ditto museums/libraries/leisure centres etc
Posted by: Doctor Blind 4th October 2020, 02:40 PM
£4 entry sounds very good. I may even have gone at that price! Haven't been for years.
It's around £5 for our local independent cinema.
It seems to be surviving quite easily, perhaps the local independents could end up doing quite well out of this at the expense of the large chains?
Posted by: HausofGhibli 4th October 2020, 02:48 PM
That would be one positive to come out of this huge bad news story!
The government have really let the entertainment sector suffer immensly during the pandemic. This news needs to be a wake up call that more needs to be done to save the industry.
Posted by: Mart!n 4th October 2020, 04:36 PM
Very sad news, our nearest is Odeon, we do have Cineworld not far. Odeon is still going at the moment just showing old movies to keep it ticking over, but the numbers have been low. I usually watch 12 to 15 movies per year, the only movie I have seen this year was back in Jan, which was the Star Wars movie. The latest blockbusters Tenet and The New Mutants that hit the screens recently are doing badly, the latter movie to be honest its not that really good, I heard.
Posted by: Chemistry 4th October 2020, 04:51 PM
I can't help but think that most of the big studios are acting pretty selfish at the moment, sure Bond would not have made as much money as in normal situations, but at the same time, Bond needs cinema as much as cinema's need Bond (as they keep saying they want to show it on the big screen). Couldn't they take a bit of a loss? I am sure it would not be THAT bad for such a big studio, look at Tenet, it has already crossed around 300 million worldwide which is definitely not a bad result.
Surprisingly cinema over here in The Netherlands seems to be doing quite well at the moment, ofcourse numbers are down, but overall it seems to be doing quite okay. So I am extra sad to read this news. I visited the new Cineworld in Plymouth over the Christmas break and it looked fantastic! I really hope they could re-open next year.
Posted by: Crazy Chris 4th October 2020, 05:29 PM
The studio will charge a hell of a lot to rent a movie like Bond to the cinemas, especially in the first few weeks. They could charge less but guess they won't want to do that. A chain pays less than an individual independant for instance if they rent say 2000 prints.
Posted by: Jαsє 4th October 2020, 10:19 PM
So is this for good or..
My local Cineworld in York only opened in December 2019 so this is devastating It was one of the few Cineworld's in the UK to have the VIP experience too.
Posted by: Rooney 4th October 2020, 11:38 PM
My local Cineworld in York only opened in December 2019 so this is devastating
It was one of the few Cineworld's in the UK to have the VIP experience too.They will lay all the staff off and run with the skeleton crew in head office to keep the company going ot seems.
The problem here is the studios, if there are no big releases for 6 months what's going to attract people to cinemas?
Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th October 2020, 04:01 PM
My local is Cineworld, I'm a regular supporter of cinema, and a bit pissed so I'm not going as planned to see Bill & Ted today in protest. I understand why they've done it, to stop losing cash, but if Odeon stays open in the next town I'll switch to that one instead. Whether or not I go to see Bond depends on what happens to UK cinemas. If Cineworld open again, I'll go, if they don't I won't. If the movie industry wants to make megabucks then they need to learn to support cinemas, cos what it really means if they don't is the End of the expensive Blockbuster (ie the sort of films I love) in favour of lower-budget films that can make a profit from less venues.
Those of us with long memories can recall a time when TV killed off local cinemas in droves and you just had one or two big films in most towns showing on one screen and that was it. What that meant was huge films ran for weeks, and other films died a death. And that was hugely boring before multiplexes offered more choice....
Posted by: Hadji 5th October 2020, 04:15 PM
I think they’ll reopen in December when the big films ie. Peter Rabbit 2, WW1984, Death On The Nile and Soul get released
Posted by: Juranamo 5th October 2020, 04:22 PM
What would be the harm in a billion dollar company putting it out to cinemas for a bit (bearing in mind they were also advertising it, via trailers, pre-lockdown) to give them a bit of a helping hand? Or at least giving the option of what experience customers would like?
Just leaving this here. Same goes for pushbacks.
The New Mutants: destined to bomb anyway (and still managed a 600k? [Could be imagining this] opening), and basing on the pushbacks, was not a surprise
Bill & Ted: Well that's on streaming already... I'm sure streamers could have waited a month or would have happily went out to the cinema (if that was the only option, at that point - everything gets a release eventually)
Tenet: has been a reasonable smash - maybe less than it could have been - but £5mil is a serious opening (and certainly more than can be imagined from streaming)
Mulan: obviously trying to hide a bomb, but would have helped out the cinemas
I mean, people are heading to the cinemas (in not exactly completely insignificant numbers) to see reruns of classics and Onward! You can release and support cinemas. Ugh.
Posted by: Jack 5th October 2020, 05:16 PM
Those of us with long memories can recall a time when TV killed off local cinemas in droves and you just had one or two big films in most towns showing on one screen and that was it. What that meant was huge films ran for weeks, and other films died a death. And that was hugely boring before multiplexes offered more choice....
You're not going to see a film in protest when cinema needs people to more than ever?! That doesn't make any sense lmao.
Powered by Invision Power Board
© Invision Power Services