Falkirk Cineworld confirms it will be closing

Moshe “Mooky” Greidinger, Cineworld chief executive, has now gone on the record to state the firm will be “suspending” its operations from Thursday, putting 5500 UK jobs at risk.

He said: “We did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable re-openings in all of our markets. We cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was.

“Cineworld will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations in these markets at the appropriate time, when key markets have more concrete guidance on their reopening status and, in turn, studios are able to bring their pipeline of major releases back to the big screen."

Cineworld did not give a date when Falkirk and the other cinemas will re-open.

It appears the latest James Bond film being delayed – it was moved back from April this year, to November and is scheduled to come out in April 2021 – was the final nail in the coffin for Falkirk’s Cineworld and the other multiplexes throughout the country

Cineworld is understood to be contacting Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to explain the exhibition sector is “unviable”.

They say this is due to studios delaying their big new releases – like the forthcoming Bond film No Time to Die – because they are worried audiences are staying away from cinemas amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.