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Cineworld Group, owner of Regal Cinemas, is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. and an insolvency proceeding in the UK, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing anonymous sources.
The British movie theater specialist, which operates over 750 theaters in 10 countries — including over 500 in the United States under the Regal brand — said that despite some recovery in movie ticket sales recently, attendance is still well below expectations.
"These lower levels of admissions are due to a limited film slate that is anticipated to continue until November 2022, and are expected to negatively impact trading and the group’s liquidity position in the near term,” the company said, as reported by Variety.
That was the case despite a handful of blockbuster movies this summer, such as the Top Gun sequel, that managed to attract people to theaters.
Cineworld suffered a $708.3M loss for 2021, though that was a considerable improvement from the $3B it lost in the pandemic year of 2020. Even so, the company's net debt, not counting lease liabilities, is now $4.84B. Presumably, one of the main goals of bankruptcy would be to trim that total.
Investors have shied away from Cineworld since the pandemic hit. Currently, it is a penny stock, trading for about 14 cents a share. As recently as three years ago, it traded for more than $10 a share.
Founded in the UK in 1995, Cineworld acquired the U.S. Regal chain in 2018 for $3.6B. The deal made the company the second-largest cinema chain worldwide, behind AMC. Besides the U.S. and UK, the company operates movie houses in Poland, Romania and other Central European nations, as well as Israel. It operates nearly 9,200 screens.
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