If you were planning on seeing the latest must-see movie at a movie theater this coming weekend, you’ll want to make sure it’s not a Regal Cinemas movie theater. The movie theater chain, which is owned by Cineworld, is going to be closed starting Friday October 9, 2020. That includes every single Regal Cinemas location in the United States and the UK.

In an official announcement, Cineworld explained that this was not an easy decision to make.

“This is not a decision we made lightly. We did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable re-openings of our cinemas and we are so very grateful for our employees who implemented the new protocols, which resulted in lots of positive feedback from customers who visited our cinemas and felt safe. We were very proud of the fact that cinemas were open for 2 months and there was not one COVID case resulting from visiting the cinema. We cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was.”

It sounds like the decision to close theaters has more to do with a lack of new movies that are ready to hit the big screen than a concern about moviegoers contracting COVID-19 from visiting a theater.

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations once film studios are able to bring their pipeline of major movie releases back to the big screen. We can assure you that once a line-up of movie releases is confirmed, we will be ready to re-open our cinemas, as we did in July, with the same safety levels you have already seen while at the same time keeping the great experience that you are used to getting from us.”

Watch the video below for more about why all Regal Cinemas are closing.

As you can probably imagine, Regal Cinemas employees are not happy about the news that the theaters will be closing. Before the pandemic, Cineworld employed 37,000 people. That’s 37,000 people who at least temporarily are out of work.

The front page of tomorrow’s Times is announcing that Cineworld is planning to close all of its cinemas across the country as soon as this week putting all of our jobs at immediate risk. There has been no consultation with staff whatsoever. pic.twitter.com/16fKxGcNnG

— Cineworld Action Group (@cineactiongroup) October 3, 2020

Does it surprise or disappoint you that Regal Cinemas will be temporarily closed? Have you gone to a movie theater recently?