Regal Cinemas have announced that all 536 of their theaters around the United States will be closed on October 8th until further notice. What this means for users of their Regal Unlimited app remains unknown (FYI, as someone who uses that app and went to see a screening of Tenet with it, I’ve been charged for just that screening but nothing else.) Though it hasn’t been officially stated the main reason as to why, I think most everyone can guess why. Mostly that 1.) the Covid-19 pandemic is still in effect and 2.) there’s practically no big movies expected to come out for the rest of the year.
In my post a week ago about the Marvel movies originally planned for this year getting pushed back to 2021, I stated that it was basically a sign that Hollywood is about done with trying to release big blockbusters for the remainder of 2020. With this news from Regal, someone better pick up the phone because I absolutely called it! Not just with more movies like the next 007 installment, No Time to Die and Warner Bro’s Dune reportedly being pushed back as well (April 2nd, 2021 and October 1st, 2021 respectively), but that not even theaters are wanting to release anything because well, they have nothing new to release now (unless some of you wanna risk your skins seeing The War With Grandpa or the re-showing of Minions). While Pixar’s Soul and DC/Warner Bro’s Wonder Woman 1984 release dates are still put, you can bet the farm that they too will be pushed back as well. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if the word comes out by the time I’ve posted about this.
This does make one wonder about the future of theaters. Even when things do go back to “normal”, how will they still be able to operate with this much money lost throughout the year? They can’t constantly rely on financial aid and overpaid loans from the government for the next year to be able to keep their theaters afloat. Eventually, something will have to give. While 2021 will absolutely be loaded with next releases, who knows how many theaters will still be around to be able to play those? Even the theaters that do manage to survive the pandemic, think of the higher prices for movie tickets and concession (and I’m talking even more so than usual) because of having to make up with all the potential dollar signs lost in 2020. What’s there to say that moviegoers will approve of going back to theaters in 2021 even with Dune and the new Batman movie being released on the same weekend due to things like that (UPDATE, the later has now been pushed back to 2022). This might just be the turning point for the future of cinema. This is perhaps where the future of digital and video on demand will now come into play. Congrats Trolls World Tour, you’ve officially killed cinema!
Regardless, you’ve heard of it again. Starting on October 8th, all Regal Cinemas theaters across the United States will be shut down until God knows when. As I said with my Marvel post from a week ago, let’s pray theaters are still around by then!
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