Empire Cinemas was founded in 2005 on the back of the Odeon-UCI merger, which saw the company become an independent chain in the UK. Well, unfortunately, it’s been revealed that they have been forced to shut down seven of its UK sites and the company has entered into administration.
They had previously taken eleven sites over from Odeon and Cineworld and the company was named after the original Empire Theatre in Leicester Square, which opened in 1884. The company in 2016 sold five cinemas (including the Empire Theatre site) to Cineworld for £94 million and recently closed their London Haymarket cinema and Slough cinema.
The company has over 128 screens across the UK and 13 sites and was due to open new cinemas in Peterborough and Basildon later this year. However, due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 and lowering box office revenues, the company has entered administration effective today, and seven sites have closed immediately, and staff from those sites within have been made redundant.
Empire Cinemas has now gone into administration
Credit: Pexels
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These sites include Bishops Stortford, Sunderland, Sutton Coldfield, Catterick Garrison, Swindon, Walthamstow and Wigan. Administrators have been put in control of Empire Cinemas Limited, and the official statement reads as follows:
Tony Nygate, John Strowger Danny Dartnaill were appointed Joint Administrators of Empire Cinemas Limited on 7 July 2023.
The statement refers to the ongoing lockdowns, challenging environment and exhausting of all other options for the businesses has led to the company taking this decision to ensure they can save the largest number of jobs possible.
This is a very sad case, and it does look like the future of the cinema is looking very, very bleak. It’s not a very good time to be in the business of running a cinema.
What do you make of this news? Are you sad to hear that Empire Cinemas in now entering into administration? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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I am absolutely gutted about this. I grew up in a small town and had to get a bus to travel to the nearest cinema. When I saved enough to buy a house, I bought one in Sunderland, partly as there was a cinema within walking distance. Empire has been a corner stone of my life growing up and has been great for date nights for me and my wife. I am so incredibly sad to hear about it shutting