Temporary suspension of US & UK cinema operations

RNS Number : 0275B

Cineworld Group plc

05 October 2020

 

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

5 October 2020

Cineworld Group plc ("Cineworld" or the "Group")

Temporary suspension of cinema operations in the US and UK

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. These closures will impact approximately 45,000 employees.  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.

Cineworld's main priorities remain the safety of customers and employees, cash preservation and cost reduction.  As noted in its Interim Results announced on 24 September 2020, Cineworld is assessing several sources of additional liquidity and all liquidity raising options are being considered. 

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

Enquiries: Cineworld Group plc		Media
Israel Greidinger Nisan Cohen Manuela Van Dessel	[e-mail] 8th Floor, Vantage London Great West Road Brentford TW8 9AG	James Leviton Rob Allen	[e-mail] [phone]

The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement is Fiona Smith, Company Secretary.

Certain statements in this announcement are forward looking and so involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events, and depend upon circumstances that will occur in the future and therefore results and developments can differ materially from those anticipated. The forward looking statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date of preparation of this announcement and the Cineworld undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.  Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast.

 

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