cineworld has closed....is this it for cinemas?

[MrsShelton]

it feels so final. got the email today from cineworld saying closed ....no date for a planned opening either

cinemas date back to a time before internet and tv, makes me think they will be gone, we have netflix now

i think i heard odeon was only opening weekends too. will cineworld continue to pay rent and retain staff?

Umm I wonder when disney made the decision to do Mulan on Disney plus it did feel a bit the end.

It’s interesting that bond is still holding out for a cinema release at some point rather than going for an online option but sad and worrying I agree I like seeing stuff on the big screen (and would happy to go to the cinema now if they were open and if there was anything to see)

Definitely doesn't help majority of films have been pushed back till next year.

Know been showing older films but I doubt many would pay to see what they could see at home so make sense. Just feels sad and for the staff too. Hopefully it'll bounce back eventually but like everything so uncertain.

It’s a shame but with filming being disrupted so hardly any new releases and many not wanting to sit in a venue with others with no masks they were bound to struggle. I think Disney have out a few things directly online to their subscription.

It’s a bizarre chicken and egg situation between the cinema chains and the production companies. I went to the cinema with the kids in the summer holidays and it felt perfectly safe - staff in visors, no one sat near us (it was a mid week afternoon to be fair). I would be happy to go back, but there’s been barely any films released as all the major companies have delayed their releases, and I’m not happy to pay cinema prices for old films or ones that would usually have gone straight to DVD. I would have loved to take the kids to see Mulan (and I’m not paying an extra £20 to see it on Disney+).

I’m so sad about it. Our local trampoline park has closed and swimming pools are lessons only - these and the cinema are our usual rainy day activities and there’s very little to entertain the kids going into the winter.

Apart from during lockdown, I've been going to Cineworld two or three times a week for two years. I have MH issues and going there by myself has been pure escapism on dark days and got me out of the house. I'm devastated that they're having to close on Friday but understand why with next to no new films being released. I now can't see me leaving the house at all during winter now, I so hope they come back again and that this isn't the end.

maybe the powers that be will treat us all and put the new Bond film on for christmas day!!

wishful thinking, but we deserve SOMETHING!

I don't think it will be the end. I think it will breath life into smaller independent cinema / small chains.

Going to the cinema is not the same when the cinemas are in shopping centres/ out of town places - when they were in the town centre you could do something else, now you have to drive and it's not the same.

It will be theatres and music venues next.

Sad times.

ours is next to the towns river bordering a country park

was perfect! we were unlimited card holders so went lots.

when they do reopen i think the prices will be higher .... popcorn, drinks and snacks were a ridiculous price

Perhaps mandatory mask wearing during films impacted revenue. Don't get me wrong I'm pro-masks and wear them whenever necessary but as a glasses wearer I literally wouldn't be able to see the film due to steaming up. Think how many people you know who wear glasses....all of those people would no longer be potential customers. I'm not sure what the answer is but it's certainly the reason I didn't give my local cinema any custom when it reopened.

We went several times after lockdown was eased, wearing mask in theatre, to watch those re-releases such as The Hunger Games and Harry Potter series. It was great and, apart from the masks, it felt like normality.

If they had released bond it may have helped the cinemas, we saw Tenet which was excellent but so few people went.

Really sad 😔

It is really really bad in the film industry. Films that are being made are having to stop when they get a case. My friends in the industry that are working are few ( I know a lot of them) - and it is hard work: isolated in hotel rooms away from families and food delivered to room, Covid tests 3 X a week. Everyone on tenterhooks. I can't see how feature films can be made for the next 6 months.

Streaming services might just be able to guarantee audiences enough to keep the industry above the water so that feature films and cinemas can be viable at some point. For that I am thankful. Until streaming services had the money and clout they do now there was quite a divide between TV and film in actors and production staff, but the well funded long-form drama has changed this.

God I miss cinema though. It's bad bad news.

DD1 lost her job in film production ( very junior)- even films/ series that had been commissioned with big stars and script writers have been put on hold. It's desperate times, even though there are so many people ready to consume stuff,

Streaming services might just be able to guarantee audiences enough to keep the industry above the water so that feature films and cinemas can be viable at some point

I agree that previously made productions on streamed services can make money. However, it's difficult to make new drama because of the cost of setting up shoots and the risks of shutting down because of local local downs.

i'm sorry for your dd @cathyandclare

I bloody hope not. DH manages a small independent & most shows selling out, however this is at reduced capacity & reduced number shows, they’re just about breaking even.
I don’t think we’ll cope if he loses his job 😪

Gutted the Picturehouses are closed.

I am going Saturday to the Vue

do we know whats happened to cineworld staff? made redundant?

Cineworld is in a difficult position compared to some of the other chains due to having such massive debt. They were in trouble financially before COVID.

Odeon have announced that roughly a quarter of their sites will move to fri-sun only - this is sensible. Dh chain is doing similar and I expect other will too. Weekday business is so quiet it is just not worth it.

The movement of the big releases has been catastrophic. Particularly Bond as this was really a surprise - they had been moving on with a lot of marketing for a November release. There is only Soul and WW84 left as for 2020 and we all expect these to move. Soul may well go to Disney+ but I don’t think Disney are inclined to persue this model long term as it’s pretty clear the Mulan has not done that well. Assuming they do move I imagine other chains will look at closing for a time, perhaps until February/March. They will lose less money being closed than they will by being open with low attendance.

Really until LA and NY allow cinemas to open again we are unlikely to see big releases come to cinemas.

I don’t for a minute believe cinema is dead though. As long as things are more settled by spring (🙏🏻🤞🏻) the films will start coming out and I’m sure people will return. Watching something on tv whatever the size just isn’t the same.

Its only temporary closure until new films come out, quite frankly I'm not gonan go out in crap weather all the way to watch a re-run. Movies have been delayed cos they saw what happened to Tenet...not enough money coming in due to lack of people going to watch as a result of covid.

Hopefully. All that Marvel drivel was like observing a slow slide into oblivion. Netflix and online gaming far more interesting.

‘ the video game business is now larger than both the movie and music industries combined, making it a major industry in entertainment. This year, the global games market is estimated to generate US$152.1 billion’

Even if film industry survives I think cinemas have had their day.

They were built for a pre TV era. Now barely any time passes from cinema release to being able to stream it I think they’re done.

I think so too @PegasusReturns

Sad times.... the drive ins were a novelty this summer, think we may see more of that kind of thing

Perhaps the large chains at their current scale will struggle, but I don't think going to the pictures will be dead for a long time yet. Look at the success of outdoor cinemas the past couple of years pre-virus.

Streaming services are making people desire "on demand". Its not a direction I like particularly. Reading through reviews of The Boys season 2, so many are voting it low because its being released weekly and "I can't binge it all in one go, I dont want to have to wait for my content". It honestly makes me sad.

Going to the cinema is an event. It's getting a bucket of popcorn and sitting down to be immersed in a story. There are plenty of films I saw at the cinema that I don't bother watching on TV, because even on a 55" TV they can't come close to the spectacle of seeing them on a cinema screen.

Maybe cinema will die with the millennials when its our turn, the older millennials anyway. We remember a time pre-internet, pre-on demand and we have a nostalgia for the experiences. Not just cinema, but regular TV aswell, eagerly awaiting when the next episode of the show you loved would be out.