Cineworld has confirmed plans to shut down all cinemas this week, following the delay of the upcoming Bond film.

In a statement, Cineworld has confirmed that all 127 screens in the UK and 562 theatres in the US will be suspended from this Thursday (October 8).

Yesterday there were reports that up to 5,500 jobs are at risk across the UK, as the chain intended to suspend all of its 128 theatres as keeping it open has become “unviable” in the current coronavirus climate and the lack of new films being released.

Earlier in September, Cineworld warned that further global coronavirus restrictions or film delays may force it to raise further cash as it revealed half-year losses of £1.3 billion.

Reports of the move were circulating after James Bond’s ‘No Time to Die’ was moved from its November 12 slot to November next year.

Cineworld has now confirmed the news this morning in a statement: “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.

“As major US. markets, mainly New York, remained closed and without guidance on reopening timing, studios have been reluctant to release their pipeline of new films.

“In turn, without these new releases, Cineworld cannot provide customers in both the US and the UK - 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.”

Watford Observer:

Cinema screens have been empty since reopening - such as the release day of Tenet (Photo: Joseph Reaidi)

The statement also said that this would affect 45,000 employees in the UK and US, but their main priority is the safety of customers and employees, cash preservation and cost reduction.

Cineworld repeated reports that they are “assessing several sources of additional liquidity”.

Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, said: "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."

Watford Observer:

Screens could be suspended until 2021 (Photo: Joseph Reaidi)

Since the reopening of some indoor cinemas from July 31, cinemas had to screen many classic titles or other productions which were simultaneously released on streaming services like HBO Max.

Many big productions that were due to release during the pandemic were delayed, while other anticipated flicks such as Disney’s Mulan streamed exclusively on Disney+ for a fee.

But August 26 marked the cinematic release of the first new blockbuster film since the Covid-19 lockdown, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet.

At the time, Cineworld were hopeful to encourage people to be confident and visit the big screen once more – and we even took a look to see how much the blockbuster experience has changed since the pandemic.

Those in the film industry hoped that the latest Bond flick would have been the catalyst to truly bring people back to the screens and bring life to the struggling sector, after Tenet failed to bring in its typical blockbuster crowds.

The move to shut cinemas will mean staff will be asked to accept redundancy and cinemas could stay closed until 2021.