Movie theaters to close again in Boise, Nampa after chain announces shutdown

After reopening in August, Edwards Cinemas theaters will close again later this week until further notice.

Cineworld, parent company of Regal — which operates Edwards — temporarily will suspend operations at all 536 of its theaters in the United States, according to a news release. In the Treasure Valley, that includes four multiplexes in Boise and Nampa, which plan to continue showing movies through Thursday.

Cineworld, the second largest theater chain in the world, made the decision to shut down because of financial challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is not a decision we made lightly,” Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, said in the release, “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 theaters 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. We are especially grateful for and proud of the hard work our employees put in to adapt our theaters to the new protocols and cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was.”

Cineworld’s closure is expected to affect about 40,000 employees nationwide.

Since reopening with coronavirus safety precautions, theaters worldwide have faced a more fundamental challenge: Lack of product. Rather than releasing new films to disappointing box office numbers, studios are sitting on them. Producers said last week that the 25th James Bond thriller, “No Time to Die,” due to open in November, is being delayed until April 2021. It was originally scheduled to open last April. Other major studios have made similar decisions. Universal delayed “Candyman” to next year, and the Walt Disney Co. has postponed a handful of major movies to 2021, including Marvel’s “Black Widow” and Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.”

“In turn,” Cineworld’s news release said, “without these new releases, Cineworld cannot provide customers in both the U.S. and U.K. – the company’s primary markets – with the breadth of strong commercial films necessary for them to consider coming back to theaters against the backdrop of COVID-19.”

Before reopening this summer, Idaho theaters originally were forced to close in March because of the pandemic. Although many theaters nationwide have returned to action, they remain closed in New York and Los Angeles.

The announcement of Edwards’ shutdown was not echoed by other Treasure Valley theaters Monday.

Village Cinema at the Village at Meridian does not plan to close, said James Howard, executive director of Cinema West, which owns the multiplex.

“... However,” he explained via email, “like Regal, our viability depends on new movies, and we hope distribution will resume supporting us soon.”

The Associated Press contributed.

This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 9:43 AM.