SAN ANTONIO – It is news that has rocked the movie theater industry.
Regal Cinema, the second largest cinema chain in the nation announced Monday it is temporarily closing all of its U.S. theaters and some in the UK.
Of the 536 theaters in the U.S., six are located in San Antonio.
The company reported losing billions of dollars in the first half of 2020. Due to the pandemic, theaters were shut down and some big money movies are holding out on their releases.
Santikos Entertainment CEO Tim Handren told KSAT his theaters have suffered some blows, but nothing to that extent.
“The Palladium theater outperforms all five of the Regals combined, so I can see why they might be struggling,” he said.
Handren said out of the nine local Santikos theaters, seven are open to customers. The Bijou and Silverado locations are temporarily closed.
“We were one of the first theaters in the U.S. to reopen, and I think we helped set the standard for how a theater should safely open. The National Association of Theater Owners adopted our standards,” Handren said.
Those standards include strict mask and social distancing mandates.
“We’re still at 50% max capacity. We never even come close to that. So when you go to reserve your seats, there are seats that are blacked out so you won’t be near anybody. On a good day we might have 10 to 20%,” he said.
Handren and his team monitor theater performance everyday and said if they’re surviving, it’s better to be open.
“At least we’re providing jobs and we’re covering the cost of those jobs and the cost to be open and we’re covering a little but of our fixed operating costs,” he said.
Back in April during the lockdown, Santikos had to furlough almost 700 employees, but since opening back up, almost 400 have been rehired.
“After Tenet opened, these last few weeks we continue to do better every single week,” he said.
It’s a trend Handren hopes will continue so he can ring back the rest of those employees.
“At the end of the day, we’re still not breaking even but we are doing good things by being open, by giving jobs back to employees and giving people a place to escape their couches,” he said.
As for Regal Cinemas, the statement released Monday said the closures are temporary, but did not say anything about when the theaters might reopen.