What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Last year Landmark closed about a dozen locations across the USA...

It's owned by Mark Cuban, so you can bet that any slim performing sites won't be around long...

[Harold Hallikainen]

Landmark shutting down Denver's Chez Artiste after shutting down Esquire last month. We were part of a Meetup movie group that saw a lot of movies at these two theaters.

https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/0...movies-denver/

[William Kucharski]

Via Paul Rayton... Apparently, the Bruin is closing down permanently.

Its future is unknown. It may be closing permanently but that is not a given.

The building has historical status so it won't be torn down for condos with retail on the first floor, but it could become a gym for all we know.

(I recall when it was thought the same might happen to the former ArcLight theaters since the Dome itself is protected.)

[Steve Guttag]

The Moorlyn Square 4 has opened (previously known as the Moorlyn Stadium 4) in Ocean City, NJ. The Moorlyn Square is owned/operated by the same Town Square Theatres that run the Cape Square, Harbor Square, Tilton Square and Ventnor Square.

All screens at the Moorlyn feature 7.1 sound with 4K projection (and motorized masking...yes people that care about presentation do put motorized masking in).

https://www.squaretheatres.com/locations/moorlyn-square

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Kerasotes closed four Showplace ICON theaters in major locations on July 2, most had only been open six or less years:

• Mountain View, California (San Antonio Center)
• San Jose, California (Valley Fair)
• Chicago (South Loop)
• St. Louis Park (Minneapolis)

William, I grew up in Illinois. I've never been overly impressed by Kerasoates or the other GKC Theaters which for most of it's life was run by a different Kerasoates Brother. I've always felt they are more of a "me too" theater chain. They do have a number of good locations, and the presentations are ok. But just like the rest of the chains, they are nothing more than multiple boxes with screens a projector and uncomfortable recliners. GKC no longer exists and their sites were bought up by AMC and others...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Via Paul Rayton... Apparently, the Bruin is closing down permanently. Regency Theaters has NOT renewed their long time lease. We also had a Regency Location in Salt Lake City at Trolley Mall that I used to service, but it only lasted a few years...

[William Kucharski]

Athens, GA

Beechwood Cinemas closing doors for final time on Thursday

https://www.onlineathens.com/story/e...y/74547313007/

[Leo Enticknap]

Article

Major UK cinema chain 'will announce plans tomorrow to close around 25 UK cinemas and axe hundreds of jobs' in new bid to save the ailing screen chain

By Katherine Lawton

Published: 03:32 EDT, 25 July 2024 | Updated: 06:05 EDT, 25 July 2024

Cineworld is reportedly set to close around 25 UK cinemas and axe hundreds of jobs under a new plan to save the ailing screen chain.

The cinema operator will publish details of a restructuring plan tomorrow that will result in the site closures across the UK.

Sources said around half a dozen Cineworld cinemas would begin a closure process immediately and shut for good this summer, according to Sky News.

It comes as many customers blamed the cinema chain's decline on its prices, claiming a family trip to the cinema has become too expensive.

The company has been in preliminary talks with large commercial landlords, such as Landsec and Legal & General, about the restructuring plans.

Some landlords are reportedly considering rejecting the proposals, but it remains unclear whether this would be in sufficient number to stop the restructuring plan.

The company is being advised by AlixPartners.

It is expected that other cinema operators could step in and take over some of Cineworld's closed sites.

A Cineworld spokesperson previously said in a statement: 'We continue to review our options but we don't comment on rumours and speculation.'

Cineworld customers say chain has priced them out of trips to the movies as it plans to axe 25 sites

After the news of the closures broke on social media, a number of cinema-goers took to X, formerly Twitter, to express their views.

One commenter said: 'With cinemas being so over priced and given that films now take less time before they end up on streams I'm not surprised.

'Does anyone remember orange Wednesdays and Saturday morning pictures for £1.. ah the good old days.'

Earlier this month, Cineworld customers said the chain has priced them out of trips to the movies.

MailOnline calculated a family of four going to see a film in 4DX along with snacks and drinks could now cost as much as an eye-watering £105.

That's for a family of four to see a 4DX screening of Inside Out 2 at Wandsworth in London, buying two large popcorns, two large hot dogs, confectionary for the two children and four large soft drinks.

And that's without splashing out on special 3D glasses - which cost £5 a pair.

However, prices may vary depending on where the Cineworld is located.

Cineworld disputed MailOnline's figures and claimed a Family Special deal would be cheaper, although this would take customer research and would not available for everyone.

A spokeswoman said: 'With the Cineworld Family Ticket, for example, adults pay kids' prices, so it costs just £31.96 (£7.99 per person) for a family of four to see a regular 2D screening of Inside Out 2 at Cineworld Wandsworth.

'By upgrading to 4DX with a family ticket, adults still pay kids' prices, and families get the added enjoyment of stimulating effects like water, wind, lightning, bubbles and moving seats.

'Family tickets also come with a discount on food with a Family Special for £19, which includes a regular popcorn, two regular soft drinks, plus two Munchboxes.'

MailOnline has contacted Cineworld for comment.

[William Kucharski]

Kerasotes closed four Showplace ICON theaters in major locations on July 2, most had only been open six or less years:

• Mountain View, California (San Antonio Center)
• San Jose, California (Valley Fair)
• Chicago (South Loop)
• St. Louis Park (Minneapolis)

[Leo Enticknap]

Two: our society needs lots of "ditch digger" level workers -employees we take utterly for granted. Every city and town, no matter how rich its citizens are, depends on workers making shit pay. We're talking people who stock store shelves, cook food, haul garbage, etc.

I suspect that a significant number of those jobs will be automated out of existence within the next generation or two, just as the combine harvester automated a lot of farming jobs out of existence, the Diesel engine removed between tens and hundreds of jobs from the crews of ocean liners and freighters, etc. etc. The California fast food minimum wage hike to $20/hour sparked some media attention around burger flipping robots, etc.: it looks like they're currently not as cheap or reliable as humans, even at $20 an hour, but they're getting there.

[Bobby Henderson]

One of the reasons why we now have an even bigger housing price bubble than the one in the mid 2000's is various elected "lawmakers" deliberately rolled back certain regulations they wrote into law after the last housing industry crash. So here we are now, doing it even bigger than last time. Games are being played in attempts to sustain this price speculation gravy train -forced scarcity in housing being one of those games. But the fundamentals of the situation are so obscene in their excess that they are eroding the very bedrock of our society.

Two big things are not escapable. One: our society's future depends on tens of millions of young adults breeding new citizens into existence; most of those young adults are not rich. Two: our society needs lots of "ditch digger" level workers -employees we take utterly for granted. Every city and town, no matter how rich its citizens are, depends on workers making shit pay. We're talking people who stock store shelves, cook food, haul garbage, etc. That's in addition to the cops, teachers, fire fighters and skilled laborers (plumbers, electricians, etc). So many cities around this nation have become NOT affordable at all to most of these kinds of workers. There are many millions of young adults being totally priced out of parenthood. All of this stuff can lead to a long term structural decline in this country's housing industry. I can foresee a scenario where a bunch of these McMansion neighborhoods are sitting empty, waiting for the wrecking ball. They might be bulldozing a bunch of those big-ass homes. Because why would a single, unmarried, child-less adult need a big-ass house with big-ass utility bills, big-ass property taxes and big-ass maintenance costs? America's housing industry is going to be very different when we are in the throes of demographic collapse.

Despite attempts at forced scarcity, the inventory levels of vacant housing is shooting way up in a growing number of markets. Price over-valuation is over 30% in many metro areas. Commercial real estate in big city centers is probably in just as dire a situation, if not worse. I heard Manhattan's office vacancy rate is over 20%.

[Martin McCaffery]

the housing crisis of 1812 (I made that up)

The British haven't burned it since then, so we must have learned something

(yeah, I know it was 1814, work with me)

[Lyle Romer]

I share Bobby's concerns about the economy. It seems that the inevitable has just been delayed for the last few years and when the recession hits finally it will be REALLY deep. On the housing side of things, it's like nobody learned anything from 2008. We just spent a bunch of money bailing out banks and then everything just slid back to the status quo that was happening leading up to 2008. It's mind boggling as it wasn't THAT long ago. I understand not learning from the housing crisis of 1812 (I made that up) but I don't understand not learning from something 16 years ago.

[Bobby Henderson]

I think one of the best methods of risk reduction for COVID is living a more healthy lifestyle. That means real exercise on a regular basis and eating more healthy. COVID did kill some perfectly fit people just on sheer bad luck over their genetics. Far more of those killed by COVID had other serious health issues. They were already compromised in some manner. One of my friends who died of COVID struggled with alcoholism for many years; his liver was damned near shot.

With that being said, I would hope more people will get out of the house and visit a movie theater rather than cocooning themselves at home. Lapsing into a sort of bunker mentality habit isn't good for the mind or body. But now I'm more worried about the economy than I am of COVID. A lot of signs are pointing to a sharp downturn in the housing industry, a possible spike in unemployment and a serious recession in the near future. A bunch of people may go from having a choice to get out of the house to not being able to afford to get out of the house.

[Lyle Romer]

The more serious threats to movie-theater attendance figures are the stupidly short theatrical release window and a general public that appears ever more financially broke. We have a housing industry price bubble that is even more perversely big than the one nearly 20 years ago. Shit is about to break.

Spot on on both topics. They are both threats on their own but when combined they become a nuclear bomb level threat.

As far as COVID, it's not that I don't take it seriously, it's that there isn't much I/we can really do about it without drastic alterations to the way we live. It mutates too easily and quickly for a vaccine to be highly effective so the best you can get is some risk reduction. The only way to achieve massive risk reduction would be to live in a way that I don't really consider living so I just add it to the list of other things I might catch walking around.