Regal Cinemas, which operates two Jacksonville locations, announced Oct. 5 it will temporarily close all its U.S. theaters beginning Oct. 8.
Regal’s Jacksonville theaters are in River City Marketplace at 12884 City Center Blvd. and near The Avenues mall at 9525 Philips Highway.
The theater cited the lack of new movie releases and continuing COVID-19 closures throughout the country as reasons for temporarily suspending its operations, a news release said. It did not say when the theaters would reopen.
“This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support a safe and sustainable reopening in the U.S. – from putting in place robust health and safety measures at our theatres to joining our industry in making a collective commitment to the CinemaSafe protocols to reaching out to state and local officials to educate them on these initiatives,” Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, said in the release.
About 40,000 employees across the country will be affected by the temporary closures.
Regal began reopening its locations Aug. 21. They were closed beginning March 17.
The news release said Regal will “continue to monitor the situation closely” and plans to resume operations when more of the country reopens and studios begin releasing new movies.