Regal Cinemas parent Cineworld to file for bankruptcy

[ClownLoach]

Several locations that were supposed to close in February are still open, including Yorba Linda, CA (a brand new, beautiful built from ground up multiplex just a couple of years old) and Costa Mesa (across the street from South Coast Plaza). Some other articles have indicated Regal keeps changing the lease reject list as they continue to negotiate with landlords. They got in trouble with the court already for being late in submitting the list, and now it is evident the list isn't final. I wonder what the court will do (if anything?) considering there's added noise of the international ownership. The bankruptcy code was modified several years ago and reduced the time window for lease rejections to about 90 days. They are way past their court deadlines.

[Brian Lutz]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/01/business ... IfonLxNkig

Cineworld is now out of bankruptcy, having eliminated around $4.5 billion in debt and secured $800 million in new capital and $1.7B in debt financing. In total, 51 Regal Cinemas have been closed.

[Alpha8472]

The ones they closed were probably the oldest and worst performing. However, that did leave many nearby restaurants suffering from lack of customers. There is an abandoned eyesore in San Ramon,California.

[ClownLoach]

It seems many of the closing locations were renegotiated and saved. Others that weren't on the closure list were abruptly sold off. Foothill Ranch Regal 22 was just transferred to Cinemark. That was a Regal build before they acquired their competitor Edwards Cinema in the California market. Edwards built higher quality theater complexes but they were poorly maintained under Regal.

Every Regal build I've been in is either very dated and worn looking, or has a brand new remodel that is of very poor quality. Cheap silver cladding outside, dark cheap LED filled interiors, and bad picture/sound. The onetime flagship Edwards in Irvine Spectrum was for years the highest grossing theater in the US, but Regal neglected it to the point of irrelevance. Then they remodeled all the character out of it and installed the lowest possible quality sound, seats, and projectors in a remodel that took way, way too long.

[buckguy]

It seems many of the closing locations were renegotiated and saved. Others that weren't on the closure list were abruptly sold off. Foothill Ranch Regal 22 was just transferred to Cinemark. That was a Regal build before they acquired their competitor Edwards Cinema in the California market. Edwards built higher quality theater complexes but they were poorly maintained under Regal.

Every Regal build I've been in is either very dated and worn looking, or has a brand new remodel that is of very poor quality. Cheap silver cladding outside, dark cheap LED filled interiors, and bad picture/sound. The onetime flagship Edwards in Irvine Spectrum was for years the highest grossing theater in the US, but Regal neglected it to the point of irrelevance. Then they remodeled all the character out of it and installed the lowest possible quality sound, seats, and projectors in a remodel that took way, way too long.

Regal has run poorly maintained dumps for decades. Landlords may have been willing to negotiate because there wasn't anyone else to fill their spaces---they have some very awkward locations (basements, upper floors of malls, isolated multiplexes with nothing around) that would be difficult to re-tenant.

[babs]

It seems many of the closing locations were renegotiated and saved. Others that weren't on the closure list were abruptly sold off. Foothill Ranch Regal 22 was just transferred to Cinemark. That was a Regal build before they acquired their competitor Edwards Cinema in the California market. Edwards built higher quality theater complexes but they were poorly maintained under Regal.

Every Regal build I've been in is either very dated and worn looking, or has a brand new remodel that is of very poor quality. Cheap silver cladding outside, dark cheap LED filled interiors, and bad picture/sound. The onetime flagship Edwards in Irvine Spectrum was for years the highest grossing theater in the US, but Regal neglected it to the point of irrelevance. Then they remodeled all the character out of it and installed the lowest possible quality sound, seats, and projectors in a remodel that took way, way too long.

Regal has run poorly maintained dumps for decades. Landlords may have been willing to negotiate because there wasn't anyone else to fill their spaces---they have some very awkward locations (basements, upper floors of malls, isolated multiplexes with nothing around) that would be difficult to re-tenant.

Most theaters are impossible to retenant without tearing it down. Most are concrete buildings with concrete walls and risers for stadium seating. Very expensive to remodel.

[Brian Lutz]

I know of a couple of theaters that were repurposed, but one of them got turned into corporate offices (this is now Bungie's headquarters in Bellevue WA) and the other got turned into a church. Most vacant theaters just sit empty until they eventually get torn down. There was also the former Cineplex Odeon (I believe it was 6 screens) in Redmond Town Center that closed and sat empty for several years before being turned into a luxury theater, which is what is there now. There was also a former General Cinema in Renton that sat empty for a good 15 years before getting torn down. Here in Greensboro there is a theater on Battleground that closed as a result of COVID, and there are rumors floating around that it will be reopened as a theater again at some point, but the only sign that anything is happening is a construction dumpster in front of the building.

[Alpha8472]

I used to go to the movies once in a while. However, ever since streaming services took off I have only gone once in the past 4 years.

The movies seem to appear on streaming after a few months. Why pay more just to see it when it will be on streaming so quickly?

The quality of movies has gone down. There simply aren't enough good movies that interest people these days.

[arizonaguy]

I used to go to the movies once in a while. However, ever since streaming services took off I have only gone once in the past 4 years.

The movies seem to appear on streaming after a few months. Why pay more just to see it when it will be on streaming so quickly?

The quality of movies has gone down. There simply aren't enough good movies that interest people these days.

The film industry has been emphasizing quantity over quality for some time and due to the introduction of all of the various streaming services all of the studios / streamers have been pumping out content faster than ever before. The problem is that it's just not a lot of high quality product and a lot of the high quality product that remains doesn't have mass appeal.

One of the reasons that the writers / actors strike is occurring is that the studios and streamers are losing a ton of money right now, in part because they're spending way too much money on content that just isn't generating revenues. COVID created a number of additional costs that haven't, for the most part, been recouped.

I will say that Barbie and Oppenheimer have gotten a lot of buzz and seem to be bringing a lot of people out to the theater. Barbie as an event movie and Oppenheimer as something designed for the cinema.

I live in Phoenix where a good 6 - 7 months a year it's way too hot to do a lot of outdoor activities. Movie theaters do pretty well here compared to other places and I've probably seen about 7 or 8 movies over the last couple of months.

People complain about movie ticket prices but for frequent moviegoers Regal and AMC offer unlimited and/or 3x weekly passes that are actually pretty reasonably priced. Going to more than 2 - 3 movies a month (a rarity but it happens) makes the passes a good deal. Those monthly memberships also offer some discounts / rewards on concessions.

I'm not very familiar with Regal. They have one location in Arizona that they purchased from one of the smaller chains that they purchased and that location isn't very close to me. It doesn't appear that Regal has done much to that location other then add recliners (they added them about 6-7 years ago).

Phoenix is a big market for AMC and also a big market for the local Arizona based chain Harkins. AMC went through a big renovation push in Phoenix about 10 years ago (most of its theaters here have reclining seats and they added IMAX (although not the full size IMAX) to many of their locations). AMC also tried 2 different formats of dine in cinemas here. More recently AMC has added its other premium format, Dolby Cinema, as wall as a bar concept called McGuffins to many of its multiplexes.

AMC's theaters are fairly updated (as a lot of money was spent on decent quality remodeling in the mid 2010s) although it seems like a lot of investment in them stopped during COVID and never restarted afterwards. Restrooms have broken fixtures, some seating is ripped / torn, trash seems to be overflowing some places at AMC. AMC also seems to run very minimal staffing levels at a lot of locations (which contributes to the overflowing trash).

Harkins, the other big chain in Phoenix which is privately owned, is still mostly expanding. It recently opened it's first dine in theater concept (with another under development), it also has 1-2 standard multiplexes at various stages of planning, is renovating most of its locations including adding it's premium large format concept Cine 1 (which competes with Dolby Cinema), and runs absolutely immaculate theaters (everything in Harkins is clean and well maintained). They are also adding bars to most of their locations as well as recliner seats (although their seats are nowhere near as comfortable as the ones at AMC or Cinemark). Harkins also doesn't seem to suffer from the staffing issues AMC does (in fact, sometimes they seem potentially overstaffed).

In addition to Harkins and AMC, the other format that seems to be gaining traction in the Phoenix area is a multi-entertainment concept of arcade / bowling / glow golf / cinema. There is a chain called Fat Cats that is expanding (that is incredibly popular with good reviews). All of their locations have recliner seats and they also do birthday parties.

There are also a few other chains in the 7 - 11 screen range that have more of a dine in focus that seem to get decent reviews but aren't for frequent moviegoers.

[Alpha8472]

Those independent or family run theaters are often very well run. They staff their theaters very well to provide the best customer service. The experience is much better than Regal or AMC.