Cineworld (LON: CINE) shares plunged more than 50% on Monday after the company announced its temporary closure of 127 Cineworld and Picture house cinemas in the UK from Thursday, Oct 8 and 500 Regal cinemas in the US due to the pandemic. The closures will impact approximately 45,000 employees, including 5,500 employees in the UK and 20,000 in the US.
"As major US. markets, mainly New York, remained closed and without guidance on reopening timing, studios have been reluctant to release their pipeline of new films,” the world’s second-biggest cinema chain said in a statement.
"This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable reopening’s in all of our markets - including meeting, and often exceeding, local health and safety guidelines in our theatres and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry” Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld said.
The stock plummeted as such as 56% after the announcement. At the time writing, the share price slightly rebounded from the early session lows and trades around 24.