Regal Cinemas announced Monday (Mar. 16) that they will be shutting down all of their theater locations starting Tuesday as a precaution amid the coronavirus pandemic.
All Regal locations will remain closed until further notice to help mitigate the spread of the deadly virus that has infected nearly 200,000 people worldwide and killed over 7,100 others.
Here in the United States, there have so far been just over 4,300 confirmed cases and 77 deaths.
“Any time, at any Regal, it’s our goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for our employees and guests,” Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said in a statement to Deadline.
“At this time, we have made the difficult decision to close our theatres. We value our movie-loving customers and have no doubt we will be serving them again as soon as possible with a full slate of Hollywood blockbusters. The Cineworld Group and Regal Theatres are strong, standing on solid ground and our continued goal is to be The Best Place to Watch a Movie!”
Cineworld is Regal’s parent company and the world’s second-largest cinema chain, with more than 9,500 screens across 790 locations in 11 countries, including the United States, the UK, Canada and more.
Regal Cinemas is the second-biggest movie theater chain in the U.S. with 7,155 screens in 542 theatres across 42 states.
Regal is the first big chain out of the top 3 to close nationwide, though the others will likely soon follow suit.
