Regal United Artists closes Amarillo movie theater location, open since 1998

After over two decades of serving moviegoers in Amarillo, the Regal United Artists Star Stadium 14 has shut its doors as of Thursday.

Opening on Nov. 20, 1998, the theater boasted large stadium seating that seated around 500 people off of Interstate 40 and Soncy Road. The UK-based cinema group Cineworld Group purchased the theater’s parent company in 2017 for $3.6 billion to make it the second largest movie chain in the world at the time, with more than 9,500 theaters across 10 countries.

The theater was previously shut down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and reopened in May last year. Since that time, ticket sales nationwide have slowly recovered but are still 21% behind 2019's box office. Delays in film production have also affected the number of movies that can play in theaters, with only 46 released in the first eight months of 2021, compared to 76 in the same time period in 2019. Streaming is also seen as a factor in affecting ticket sales and profit margins for theaters.

Reports surfaced in August that the movie chain’s parent company Cineworld was preparing to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. On Sept. 7, the Cineworld Group officially filed for bankruptcy and announced that it planned to end leases for 20 of its locations and that more theaters could be closed in the near future. These theater closings leave Cineworld with 485 locations, and the nearest to Amarillo is the Midland location.

The theater chain said in its filing that it would work to improve current leases for its cinemas and change its overall real estate strategy to become more profitable in the current economy.

Cineworld’s Chapter 11 filing allows it to stay in business while trying to restructure its debt involving its U.S. and UK operations, which cover the bulk of its business. The expectation in the company’s filing is to emerge from bankruptcy protection in the first quarter of 2023, with the intent to pay all of its vendors fully while in the process and pay employees their regular wages.

With the Premier 6 at the Westgate Mall closing in February 2021, this closing now leaves Amarillo with two theater chains operating locations in the city, with Cinergy on Soncy Road and the Cinemark Hollywood 16 on Canyon Drive near Hollywood Road.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Regal United Artists closes Amarillo movie theater location