Major movie theater chain is closing SLO County, Santa Maria locations again

Regal Cinemas, one of the largest movie theater chains operating in California, is closing down again because of complications from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The theater chain said early Monday it would close all its theaters in the United States and United Kingdom, about two weeks after movie theaters were allowed to reopen in San Luis Obispo County under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new coronavirus protocols. The decision affects a total of 536 theaters in the United States.

Regal reopened its sole San Luis Obispo County location, Regal Cinemas in Arroyo Grande, on Sept. 22.

The Regal Edwards theater in Santa Maria’s Town Center shopping mall reopened Oct. 2, while the Regal Edwards theater on S. Bradley Road in Santa Maria has yet to reopen.

The Wall Street Journal said Regal’s parent, Cineworld Group, decided to suspend operations effective Thursday in part because of a shortage of popular movies. Major studios are postponing releases of blockbuster movies, such as the latest James Bond movie “No Time to Die.”

“We are like a grocery shop that doesn’t have vegetables, fruit, meat,” Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger told the Journal. “We cannot operate for a long time without a product.”

Other big movies that have been postponed include “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Black Widow.”

“As major U.S. markets, mainly New York, remained closed and without guidance on reopening timing, studios have been reluctant to release its pipeline of new films,” Regal said in a statement from its U.S. headquarters in Tennessee.

“In turn, without these new releases, Cineworld cannot provide customers in both the U.S. and the U.K. — the company’s primary markets — with the breadth of strong commercial films necessary for them to consider coming back to theatres against the backdrop of COVID-19.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Major movie theater chain is closing SLO County, Santa Maria locations again."