Were Cineworld’s problems scripted in Hollywood or closer to home?

We are especially grateful for and proud of the hard work our employees put in to adapt our theatres to the new protocols and cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was,” said Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger, as he announced the “temporary” closure of all UK and US outlets.

Those employees, most of whom will likely have found out about the plans via news sources after they leaked over the weekend, will probably feel extremely cynical about those sentiments given 45,000 of them face being thrown out of work. 

The latest postponement to the release of the new Bond movie, No Time To Die, now set to appear in April, has been tagged as the straw that broke this particular camel’s back.

But that film’s latest delay was just one of a string of similar announcements.

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Cineworld’s interim results, in which it expressed its excitement about the forthcoming slate of releases, were out of date by the time they hit the City’s screens.

Disney announced a reshuffled schedule the night before they emerged, punting three of the films Cineworld gushed over (Black Widow, West Side Story and Death on the Nile) into 2021.

I understand Cineworld isn’t blaming Hollywood for the closures and the thousands of job cuts that will flow from them.

Its views are more or less aligned with those of the big studios, which is that with cinemas in major US markets such as LA and New York shuttered, they can’t risk a domestic flop like Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. To date it has grossed just $45m in North America. Rather, their ire is directed at the authorities in those markets, people such as New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

Is this misdirected? Tenet has so far managed $307m globally, disappointing given its $200m production budget, but it could have been worse, especially considering the film’s mixed critical reception and impenetrable plot.

Hollywood executives too often seem to forget that they are in a global industry.

Just 30.7 per cent per cent of Avengers: Endgame’s $2.8bn worldwide gross in 2019 came from the US and Canada. It was 33 per cent for Frozen 2. Further down the list, but still in the half-to-three-quarter-billion-dollar gross territory, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shore and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil scored in the low 20s.

Per figures from data firm ComScore, 2019 saw the global box office reaching a record $42.5bn, of which just 25.6 per cent came from North America.

Disney’s experience with the digital release of Mulan demonstrated that despite the popularity of streaming, studios still need cinematic releases to recoup production budgets which regularly run into nine figures (Mulan cost an estimated $200m).

If Tinsel Town’s finest keep delaying for fear of their films’ opening prospects in the LA cinemas down the road from their offices, they run the risk of there being no cinemas for their films to open in.

With worst case scenarios still being revised downwards their strategy of constant delay looks more and more questionable as days go by.

Cineworld certainly has cause for complaint when it comes to the way the pandemic has been managed in its two biggest markets, the US and the UK. But its unhappiness should not be directed at people like Cuomo for keeping cinemas shut longer than it would like. The fault lies with the leaders of those two nations, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, who prioritised denial over action. 

It also shouldn’t be forgotten that Cineworld has contributed to its own problems. The company has been on a borrowing binge to fund an acquisition spree.

It now has $8bn in red ink on its books, which would have been worse had it not bailed out of a deal to buy Canada’s Cineplex.

Saddling yourself with such a burden while you’re reliant on product produced by other people in an industry in the midst of far-reaching and disruptive change could be considered as unwise, if not actively reckless. Such a burden has reduced the company’s flexibility when it is most in need of it. 

The sweeping nature of the shuttering – which doesn’t apply to the non-US and UK outlets – also raises questions.

Films need to be spectacles to tempt people to visit Cineworld’s core outlets, some of which have no more romance of cinema about them than the average Tesco, and work on a get ’em seated, sell ’em popcorn at a tenner a tub, and get ’em out as quickly as possible basis.

But it also owns Picturehouse, which has a very different vibe.

Its outlets are not as eclectic as full-on art house cinemas. You’ll still find blockbusters on show. But they manage to offer a decent selection of the independent content beloved by cinephiles, including documentaries and subtitled offerings as well as low budget film festival fare.

There’s plenty of that sort of content still being released, which could fill the chain’s screens. Yet a board that cost shareholders £6.1m last year doesn’t apparently have the entrepreneurial nous to roll the dice with making an exception. That doesn’t speak well of the talent around the table.

Hollywood movie executives and politicians might be the baddies of this story. But Greidinger and Cineworld’s other bosses are no Avengers and will bear at least some of the blame if this business ultimately finds itself in a sticky end game.