Cinemas have been going through a tough time of it lately. As well as having to deal with the cost of living crisis and the long-term financial impact of the pandemic, it seems that every day there’s a new streaming platform to compete with.
Just last week it was revealed that Cineworld had entered administration – and now Empire Cinemas is facing a similar fate. The chain had a total of 129 screens across 14 venues in the UK and six have shut their doors with immediate effect. In total, 150 jobs have been lost across the country.
The affected cinemas were located in Bishop’s Stortford, Catterick Garrison, Sunderland, Swindon, Walthamstow and Wigan. Bleakly, local media reported that, in many cases, staff turned up to work on Friday only to find notices on the windows explaining the closures.
Empire’s flagship site remains in London’s Leicester Square, though it’s currently operated by Cineworld. That theatre was formerly known as the Empire Theatre and it opened all the way back in 1884.
The sites that remain open (for now) are Birmingham, Clydebank, High Wycombe, Ipswich, Sutton, Bath and Cheltenham.
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