Cineworld Broughton set to ‘temporarily’ close on Thursday – no date given for reopening

Cineworld’s 11 screen cinema on Broughton Retail Park will ‘temporarily’ close on Thursday.

The cinema chain confirmed this morning that 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse cinemas in the UK will close from Thursday – 500 Regal cinemas in the US.

Speculation grew over the weekend that the company would close its UK and US operations as a temporary measure after the new James Bond film was delayed until the spring.

A Cineworld employee action group said: “We have found out vital information about our jobs from the media throughout the pandemic.”

“Workers have been left out of discussions that should’ve included our voices. However, in this case it goes beyond belief. To find out you may no longer have a job from the media is awful.”

“The way we have been treated throughout the pandemic has been terrible. We were initially sacked via inhuman scripted phone calls in March. 80% furlough has left many of us struggling to make ends meet. Health and safety concerns have been consistently ignored.”

In a statement to the City, Cineworld said it  “In response to an increasingly challenging theatrical landscape and sustained key market closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cineworld confirms that it will be temporarily suspending operations at all of its 536 Regal theatres in the US and its 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse theatres in the UK from Thursday, 8 October 2020.”

The closures will impact approximately 45,000 employees – around 5,500 in the UK.

Cineworld said it will “continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations in these markets at the appropriate time, when key markets have more concrete guidance on their reopening status and, in turn, studios are able to bring their pipeline of major releases back to the big screen.”

Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, commented: “This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable reopenings in all of our markets – including meeting, and often exceeding, local health and safety guidelines in our theatres and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry.

We are especially grateful for and proud of the hard work our employees put in to adapt our theatres to the new protocols and cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was, Cineworld  will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations in these markets at the appropriate time, when key markets have more concrete guidance on their reopening status and, in turn, studios are able to bring their pipeline of major releases back to the big screen.”

Broughton Cineworld, like all those in the UK closed in mid March as the coronavirus crisis began take grip, it reopened at the end of July once lockdown rules were relaxed in Wales.