“As for enforcement, we have the powers if necessary but I don’t believe it will be necessary to use those powers,” Johnson remarked, saying that mass gatherings were just something “we are now moving emphatically away from.”
Odeon currently operates 120 venues in the UK and Ireland, totalling 950 screens. It’s owned by US company AMC, which has also closed its cinemas stateside in an effort to reduce the spread of coronavirus amongst the population there. Cineworld operates 102 cinemas and runs more than 1,030 screens in the UK.
“At Cineworld and Picturehouse, we are committed to providing safe and healthy environments for our employees and guests and have therefore made the difficult decision to close our cinemas in UK and Ireland until further notice,” Cineworld Group CEO Mooky Greidinger said in a statement. “We deeply value our cinema-loving customers and have no doubt we will be serving everyone again as soon as possible with a full slate of Hollywood blockbusters and the best of independent films and content.”
Deadline reveals that “even before the closures, UK box office numbers were dropping, with takings this weekend close to 50% down on the previous period” so it’s not surprising to hear news of Odeon and Cineworld operations grinding to a halt.
Studios are now mulling the benefits of choosing to direct cinema-bound movies straight to streaming, with Universal announcing that recent big releases like The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Emma would be on-demand asap over in the US, and Disney under pressure to decide what to do with its next Marvel blockbuster, Black Widow.
More news as it breaks.
