LONDON - Cineworld, the world's second-biggest cinema operator, is set to close all its screens in the United Kingdom and Ireland as soon as the coming week, London's Sunday Times reported on Saturday .
The new James Bond movie, No Time To Die, became the latest blockbuster to be pushed into next year as the movie industry struggles to get back to business amid the coronavirus pandemic.The company, which started reopening its sites from July, runs a total of 128 theatres and 1,180 screens in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
"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 said last month.Efforts to get audiences back into theatres have proved disappointing.
The daily increase, which is nearly double Friday's 6,968 cases, is partly due to a technical issue which led to a delay in reporting data over the past week, according to a government statement.