UK’s Empire Cinemas Enters Administration With Closures, Job Losses & Cinema Sales

Andreas Wiseman
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

EXCLUSIVE: The UK’s Empire Cinemas, which operates at 14 locations with 129 screens, is entering administration.

The currently closed site at Sutton Coldfield is due to be sold and the cinemas at Bishop’s Stortford, Catterick Garrison, Sunderland, Swindon, Walthamstow and Wigan ceased trading today with a number of redundancies.

More from Deadline

The remaining Empire sites located in Birmingham, Clydebank, High Wycombe, Ipswich and Sutton, and the two Tivoli sites in Bath and Cheltenham, will continue to trade as the administrators seek a buyer for some or all of the remaining cinemas within the group’s portfolio.

Scroll down for a list of the current status of cinemas in the group. The company did not immediately disclose how many job losses are anticipated or how many staff it employs. Sky News has subsequently reported there will be 150 job losses.

This is another bitter pill for the UK film landscape, whose exhibition and distribution sectors have been hammered by Covid and inflation and must contend with imbalances in the market such as highly polarized box office and a drastically downsized distribution sector.

Embattled cinema chain operator Cineworld Group last month filed for administration in the UK and suspended trading on the London Stock Exchange as part of a restructuring plan to reduce massive debt.

Justin Ribbons, Empire Cinemas Group CEO, said today: “As a consequence of COVID-19, we found ourselves in a position where we were mandated by Government to close down our cinema chain in its entirety for protracted periods in 2020 and 2021, leaving us with a high fixed cost base and no income.”

He continued: “Cinema attendance levels have not yet returned to pre-COVID-19 levels and the operating environment remains extremely challenging, with extraordinary levels of utility costs and rates, and persistently high levels of inflation leading to increased costs and a squeeze on discretionary spending by consumers which has inevitably created profitability issues for the group. The decision to appoint administrators has not been taken lightly but will give us the best chance to protect the viable parts of the business and secure as many jobs as possible.”

The company said “gift cards and ticket e-codes purchased by customers will continue to be honoured, whilst advance ticket bookings at those sites that are continuing to trade will remain valid. Advance ticket purchases at closed cinemas have been refunded.”

Ribbons added: “It has been a difficult economic environment for any business to manage through without long term damage and having exhausted all other available options for the business, we firmly believe that this process can be a platform to restructure the business and preserve as many of our cinemas and the maximum number of jobs as possible.”

The specific companies entering administration are as follows:

Empire Cinemas Limited
T4051 Limited t/a Tivoli
Clydebank Cinema 2 Limited
High Wycombe Cinema Number Two 2 Limited
Sutton Cinema 2 Limited
Birmingham Great Park Cinema 2 Limited
Ipswich Two Cinema 2 Limited

Empire Cinemas was founded in 2005 following the mergers of Odeon and UCI and Cineworld and UGC. Empire Leicester Square was the company’s flagship site until its sale to Cineworld in August 2016.

Empire portfolio cinema status

Birmingham Great Park – Open and trading as usual
Sutton Coldfield – Closed and to be sold
Bishop’s Stortford – Ceasing to trade
Catterick Garrison – Ceasing to trade
Clydebank – Open and trading as usual
High Wycombe – Open and trading as usual
Ipswich – Open and trading as usual
Sunderland – Ceasing to trade
Sutton (Surrey) – Open and trading as usual
Swindon (Greenbridge) – Ceasing to trade
Walthamstow – Ceasing to trade
Wigan – Ceasing to trade
Tivoli brand
Bath – Open and trading as usual
Cheltenham – Open and trading as usual

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.