Movies slip and Regal closes doors again, many theaters will not be able to survive in the mailstorm

James Bond may be the last straw for Regal and Cineworld, but analysts spoke for me to agree: the only thing that really saved movie theaters in the United States is the Covid-19 vaccine.

On Thursday, Regal Cinemas – the U.S.’s second-largest theater chain with 6,556 theaters and 076 scre screens – will officially close all its doors in the United States for the second time during the global epidemic. Its parent company Synworld is also closing 127 theaters in the UK. More than 45,000 people could lose their jobs or make a fuss, and there is no timeline to reopen.

The good news seems to be that AMC and Cinemark, the first- and third-largest U.S., respectively. Don’t follow Regal’s lead. Everyone has confirmed today that the U.S. About 100% of their theaters are open and will remain open despite Regal’s decision.

But if you love theaters, you shouldn’t take it away – even with Regal out of the picture, AMC and Cinemark are fighting such a small fight over a piece of pie that they’ll both starve. Financial records show that AMC lost 2. 7.2 billion in the first six months of 2020, and Cinemark lost 23 230 million.

This is not surprising because as people stopped going to the theaters, revenue for each company became all steam. 98.7 percent And for AMC 99 percent Compared to the previous summer for Cinemark, just under 20 20 million and below 10 10 million, respectively – compared to the મા 65 million Cinemark rented. “They’re not in an earnings position and the situation is as dire as you can imagine,” says benchmark analyst Mike Hickey.

Each chain has publicly stated that it can only capture part of 2021 unless things change – this year, despite taking millions of dollars in debt, redistributing rents with their landlords, laying off thousands of employees, cutting salaries. And a number of theaters closed to some on a permanent basis.

Image: Cinemark

Image: Cinemark

Michael Patcher, an analyst at Wedbash Securities, explains that it’s mostly a matter of rent. The big chains mostly don’t own their own buildings, so even if they stop doing movie screenings, furlough their employees and stop selling food – Cinemark had ha 2.4 million in destructive food out of last quarter – they still have to pay. Rent, and before landlords have a matter of time, many of whom need to pay their own mortgages, will come to collect it. “If we don’t get a little visibility to a vaccine soon, you wonder how long homeowners will be patient.”

And that’s just the rest of the major companies that (along with Regal) accounted for only 53 percent of movie screens in the United States. On Sept. 30, the National Association of Theater Owners warned Congress that “small and medium-sized theater companies will be forced to file for bankruptcy if things continue as they did in Q2.” “Many of them are small chains, moms and pop businesses, sometimes pay generation. I don’t think many of them will survive, “says Hickey.

Now, things are not Quite They are as bad as they were in Q2 now, as that number of theaters in the US were largely closed. AMC and Cinemark just reopen for real in of Gust, just before the release of Christopher Nolan Tenet. Theaters were hopeful Tenet Will bring the crowd back, and its directors and owners have repeatedly insisted that the film will not leave theaters and need to be seen there.

Also Tenet The Labor Day weekend opened at just 20 million, which can only be seen as generously “good” considering the epidemic, and it didn’t cross $ 30 million as of Sept. 13. It has now gone through 300 million Global Receipts of office fees, but exhibitor relations analyst Jeff Bock tells us it may not be good enough: with a budget of 5 205 million plus a huge marketing campaign, the film may need 4 450 million to break.

“It simply came to our notice then Tenet Probably વિશ્વ 20 million worldwide, it’s not just about cutting it, “he says. Before the epidemic, it was estimated at $ 700 million. It’s a lot of popcorn and candy that doesn’t sell in theaters (which is how most theaters make money).

After watching early Tenet Receipts, Warner Bros. quickly decided not to take the risk Wonder Woman 1984 On that audience, pushing it towards Christmas Day. But in the wake No time to die And Dune Everyone is pushed back a year and Regal Cinema Shuttering, we wonder if Wonder Woman Truly this Christmas is coming.

If theaters will do Wonder Woman (Or Disney / Pixar’s) The soul, Another big family movie left this year) is more delayed?

“You need good content to bring people back to the movies,” argues studio and theater owners, who need to coordinate if they want to survive in theaters, rather than constantly pushing movies. He says this is a good sign Disney is not late The soul Still, and if key markets like Los Angeles and New York reopen their theaters, maintain safety requirements, and “play some good movies,” he thinks audiences will start to return.

Patcher argues that it doesn’t matter until the vaccine arrives because people are still afraid to catch a potential COVID-19 – “Imagine me staying in the theater and listening to someone cough,” he asks me – and benchmark or weedbush. Neither do things expect to be normal. In the near future. “The 200x office fees have been very high since March 2020 and mid-March 2021,” Patcher said, calling it a “lost year” for the industry. Hickey says his company’s model Dells 2022 brings us “closer to normal.”

And while Per Chatter thinks it’s too “easy” for the studio to continue pulling films right now, and hopes to find an audience later – especially since the epidemic initially made a multi-month hole in filmmaking, too, a These films leaving space – it will not be able to last forever because there is not enough space. With 1 major0 major studio releases each year, there are a lot of movies that can push theaters before there is too much for the screen.

“[We] “If this goes next summer, one of the major chains – AMC, Regal, Cinemark – (or more) should be prepared for (or more) inevitability,” says Bock, referring to the impact of COVID-19 on theaters There are factors that prevent post-vaccination, but even if one or more major theaters fall under the chain, it is not the end of American big-screen cinema.

None of the people I’ve talked to believe the Disney experiment of leaving theaters Mulan Essentially a success – or that Netflix, Amazon and other streamers will only be able to check out the big blockbuster movies, killing theaters in the process. The studios need theaters to get even more returns. “Theaters will survive; “They’re not just run by those people,” Patcher says. He points out that turning multiplexes into department stores alone is not easy, and suggests that while hundreds or thousands of theaters may close, failed movie chains will be knocked out by new investors.

“A vaccine is coming. If it comes a year from now, I think the owners of the listed chains will change. If it is in the next three months, it will all survive, ”says Patcher. “Even if the ad is 10 months from now, I think homeowners will work with the movie chain and not force them to move away. The risk is not to know. “

So, like the rest of society in the U.S., theaters remain untidy.