Regal says it is suspending operation at all of its theaters in the U.S. effective October 8th.
The move was announced on Twitter Monday afternoon.
“In response to an increasingly challenging theatrical landscape and sustained key market closures, Regal will suspend operations at all theaters at close of business on Thursday, October 8, 2020 until further notice,” Regal said in a statement.
In New York, which includes the New York City market – theaters have been closed since mid-March. With a recent uptick in cases in the New York City area, there has been little hope in way of seeing those facilities given the green light to reopen.
In September, FingerLakes1.com spoke with Jason Yantz, who runs Rochester Theater Management about the situation. They operate movie theaters in Auburn, Canandaigua, Geneseo, and Brockport.
At the time, he noted that there was a safe way to reopen theaters, and that they could work with whatever regulations the state wanted to throw at them. However, the lack of guidance from state officials was more crippling.
“I’ve been in this business now for 20 years, and people still want to get out. We’ve been trapped at home. We’ve been quarantine we’ve been in lockdown,” Yantz said at the time. “And now that we can get back out, especially during the winter months people want to get out of the house, they want to see other people, they want fresh popcorn – so as an industry – we’ll be back.”
Here’s more of that conversation below:
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