A Dundee cinema is preparing to close after the upcoming James Bond film was delayed again.
Cineworld, which operates from Camperdown Leisure Park, is set to close all its screens in the United Kingdom and Ireland as soon as the coming week, The Sunday Times reported.
The company, which has 128 theatres in the UK and Ireland, said the industry has become “unviable” because of film studios delaying their blockbuster releases due to Covid-19.
On Friday, the release of new James Bond film, No Time To Die, was delayed until the spring.
Cineworld is expected to announce its plan, which could put about 5,500 jobs at risk, as soon as Monday, the report said.
The global cinema group is this weekend writing to Boris Johnson and the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden as audience numbers have been disappointing since reopening.
Cineworld will look to reopen next year in line with the big blockbuster releases, according to the reports, which suggest many of the company’s staff will be offered redundancy, with possible incentives to rejoin when cinemas reopen.
Last month Cineworld said: “If Governments were to strengthen restrictions on social gathering, which may therefore oblige us to close our estate again or further push back movie releases, it would have a negative impact on our financial performance and likely require the need to raise additional liquidity.”
The company revealed six month losses of $1.6 billion last week after lockdowns forced its cinemas to close.
The Dundee cinema reopened at the end of August with new safety measures in place.
The multiplex multiplex has announced that most cinema tickets will be £4 in October as it tries to encourage audiences back.
The deal applies to most films that were released before October and planned re-releases of the six Rocky films.
No Time To Die had been scheduled to debut on November 11 but is now due for release on April 2 – a year after it was first meant to debut in cinemas.
Other major releases such as The Fast and Furious sequel F9, Black Widow and West Side Story have also been delayed while Disney debuted Mulan on its streaming service.
Cineworld declined to comment on the reports.
