Regal Cinemas Temporarily Closing

Regal Cinemas has announced that it is temporarily closing all of its theaters in the U.S. starting on Thursday. That will include the location at the Berkshire Mall in Lanesborough.

The Berkshire Eagle reports that, Regal, which is the second-largest movie theater chain in the U.S., said on Monday that the decision was made in response to challenges faced from the COVID-19 pandemic. The publication was unsuccessful in its attempt to reach a company spokesperson for a comment about the specifics of exactly when the mall’s cinema complex will close or how many local employees will be affected.

Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld (the parent company if Regal), said in a news release…

This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support a safe and sustainable reopening in the U.S. — from putting in place robust health and safety measures at our theatres to joining our industry in making a collective commitment to the CinemaSafe protocols to reaching out to state and local officials to educate them on these initiatives.

The decision will affect more than 40,000 employees nationwide.

According to the Eagle article, the temporary closure of the cinema at the Berkshire Mall leaves the county with just one theater that remains open. That’s the North Adams Movieplex 8, which is independently owned. The multiplex had reopened Aug. 27th.

The owners of the county’s three other movie theater complexes — Phoenix Theatres’ Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield, Images Cinema in Williamstown, and the Triplex in Great Barrington — all told the newspaper that they planned to stay shutdown for the time being.