In January, CNN published an article regarding the closure of 39 movie theaters set for February 15th across the country, including the Regal Cinema in Ithaca Mall.
According to the report, the closure was an attempt by Cineworld Group PLC to shed debt to raise some capital and keep itself afloat. Cineworld, Regal’s parent company, announced bankruptcy in September.
This news came as a hard blow to many students who had enjoyed going to the theater with their friends on weekends.
Many Cornellians would be shocked to hear that as of today, Ithaca Mall’s Regal Cinemas doors are still open, three days after the scheduled shuttering. What is going on? According to MyTwinTiers.com which is powered by WETM 18, Regal Cinemas’ management explained that there are no plans to close the movie theater in the foreseeable future and that “fingers are crossed” it will remain open in the long term-future. Regal has also declared that the original list of locations to be scrapped was actually unofficial.
Regal Cinemas competes with the other local Ithacan theaters such as Cinemapolis and Cornell Cinemas. These theaters each occupy a different niche. For instance, Regal typically has mainstream movies, whereas Cinnemapolis offers “independent, foreign and locally sourced films,” according to its website. Cornell Cinema also offers a broad range of movies tailored to Cornell students.
The closing of Regal Cinemas’ Ithaca Mall location would have punched a hole in the local movie market, with no theater showing new box office movies. Perhaps Cinemapolis would have shifted toward more mainstream movies. Maybe another theater would have opened in Regal’s place. Either way, for now we can still enjoy movies at Ithaca’s Regal Cinemas.
