Cineworld is set to close all of their UK and US at a cost of over 5,500 jobs.
This will lead to the closure of 127 UK cinemas and 536 in the US.
The move comes as the forthcoming instalment of the James Bond franchise, No Time to Die, was pushed back to an April 2021 release date “in order to be seen by a worldwide theatrical audience.”
Jo Stevens MP, the shadow culture secretary said in a statement, “This is devastating news for Cineworld workers and cinema-goers, and will have a knock-on impact on towns and city centres. The cinema industry was viable before the crisis and will be afterwards, when the film industry recovers. The failure of ministers to recognise the value of shut-down businesses, which now includes many cinemas, means they are consigning thousands of workers to the scrap heap.”
The closure of course follows the decline in footfall caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Cinemas were closed during the national lockdown and once they reopened, film fans were left with poor availability of new films to watch as a plethora of blockbusters such as Avatar 2, Wonder Woman 1984, Candyman, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Black Widow, Gozilla vs Kong which were scheduled for 2020 release and had their cinema debuts cancelled.
Cineworld reported a loss of £1.3 billion in the first six months of 2020.