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Cineworld, the world’s second-biggest cinema chain, is considering shutting down screens in the USA, UK and Ireland temporarily, thanks to postponement of the release of James Bond film No Time To Die and other films. With coronavirus cases refusing to reduce dramatically, people are still fighting shy to return to the cinemas. Crowds were seen flocking to the cinemas for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in August but attendance at cinemas has been low thereafter as cinemas don’t have anything compelling to offer the public.
It is reported that the Cineworld chain, which reopened in July, employs 37,000-odd people across 787 cinemas in the US, Britain and central Europe. No Time To Die, which was to hit the screens in November this year, was recently pushed back to April 2021, dashing off all hopes of the cinema business reviving anytime soon. In fact, the London-listed company had recently written to the UK prime minister and culture minister to warn them that the cinema industry was becoming unprofitable after it reopened with a $1.64-billion loss in the first half of 2020.
Your editor had on 19th September predicted that cinemas in India might have to close down some time next year due to shortage of playing programmes. In a video (uploaded on the top) titled ‘Kyun agle saal phir cinema bandh hone ka darr hai?’, uploaded on 19th September on his YouTube channel, Komal Nahta Official, he had said that an acute shortage of films might be experienced because a number of films had been committed for premiere on streaming platforms, and also because film shootings, which had come to a halt from March this year, might not revive very soon in view of the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country. While what will pan out in the country is yet to be seen, the announcement by the British cinema chain, Cineworld, about a likely temporary shutdown is indicative of what may be in store in India too, going forward.