Cineworld, the parent company of the U.S. movie theater chain Regal Cinemas, announced Tuesday that it would reopen its cinemas in the United States in April and in Britain in May as those countries ease lockdown restrictions.
"We have long-awaited this moment," said Mooky Greidinger, the chief executive of Cineworld, which is based in London. "With capacity restrictions expanding to 50% or more across most U.S. states, we will be able to operate profitably in our biggest markets."
Regal Cinemas is the second-largest theater chain in the United States, after AMC Theaters.
Regal had been one of most notable holdouts in the gradual reopening of cinemas nationwide. For nearly half a year, its 7,211 screens and 549 theaters in the U.S. have been dark.
Cineworld's announcement comes six months after movie chains were forced to shut down across the United States and Britain in October in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The decision affected 45,000 employees in both countries and forced studios to postpone film releases.
Cineworld also announced a multiyear agreement with Warner Bros. starting in 2022 that will allow the theater chain to show the studios' films for 45 days in the United States and 31 days in Britain. The deal shortens the typical window that theaters have to show movies before they are released to on-demand streaming services.
The U.S. reopening plans will coincide with the release of two movies from Warner Bros. Pictures, "Godzilla vs. Kong" on April 2 and "Mortal Kombat" on April 16.
"We are very happy for the agreement with Warner Bros.," Greidinger said. "This agreement shows the studio's commitment to the theatrical business."
Last week, AMC Theaters announced the reopening of nearly all of its U.S. theaters.
The moves are made at a time of concern that looser restrictions will lead to rise in coronavirus cases. On Monday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that relaxed pandemic restrictions could lead to another spike.
"If we don't take the right actions now," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, "we will have another avoidable surge."
In September, Cineworld reported a pretax loss of $1.6 billion for the first half of 2020. In 2019, 90% of the company's revenue was generated in the United States and Britain.
The Warner Bros. agreement is the latest in a reordering of the theatrical marketplace -- a change accelerated by the pandemic but viewed as long-in-coming by some analysts given the rise in streaming services.
Universal Pictures in November agreed to deals with AMC and Cinemark -- the first- and third-largest chains -- to shrink the theatrical window to 17 days, or three weekends. Greidinger at the time said the company didn't see "any business sense" in that model.
In the United Kingdom, where Cineworld is targeting a May reopening, the Warner agreement shortens the theatrical window to 31 days but can be extended to 45 days if a film reaches a certain box-office threshold.
About half of North American movie theaters were open as of last week, according to data firm Comscore. In the past few weeks, theaters have been allowed to reopen in New York and Los Angeles -- the two largest U.S. markets -- for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
Information for this article was contributed by Geneva Abdul of The New York Times and by Jake Coyle of The Associated Press.