A HUGE cinema chain with 100 branches has confirmed the exact dates it will shut two sites forever – leaving fans “absolutely gutted”.
Picturehouse have announced it will close two theatres in London over the next couple of months.
Bromley Picturehouse will be putting the shutters up on August 1, while the famous Fulham Road Picturehouse will be closing its doors on July 11.
The Fulham Road site has been home to a cinema since the 1930s and received a glitzy art-deco style renovation in 2019.
That location was sold to developers last month and it will be turned into flats, Timeout reported.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Fulham Road Picturehouse said: “We’re very sorry to announce that we’ve made the tough decision to close Fulham Road Picturehouse from Thu 11 July.
“Between now and then, you can continue to enjoy all we have to offer – we hope to see you soon.”
The Bromley cinema first opened as an Oscar Deutsch Odeon Theatres in 1936, being owned by several other chains including a Picturehouse since 2019.
The Bromley cinema posted a similar message to social media, with both sites saying they would be in touch with members soon.
Fans of the Bromley movie theatre were distraught at the loss.
One said: “A real shame this, but not surprised when the Vue cinema in Bromley was generally a lot cheaper.
“While I far prefer Picturehouse, money is tight for a lot of people and so they’ll go where the cheaper options are. Sad to see you go, and hope the staff are being looked after.
Another wrote: “Oh no, this is terrible news. Although we live on the opposite end of London my dog & I loved coming down for the dog-friendly screenings and the staff there were always the friendliest and most welcoming of all Picturehouses.”
While a third posted: “Absolutely gutted about this as a member. I love the cinema and the great film selection. A lovely oasis for the arts in Bromley in a beautiful building.”
It comes after Cineworld emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US late last year.
Filing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy means a company intends to reorganise its debts and assets while remaining in business.
At the time, the future of the chain’s 129 UK and Irish cinemas looked to be at risk.
The company’s shares plunged almost 99% in the five years to 2023, as it was hit particularly hard by the pandemic and the enforced closure of its cinema sites.
The business has posted significant losses since and has also come under pressure from platforms offering streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
In August 2023, the company employed 28,000 workers globally, with operations in 10 countries.
Cinema chain Odeon closed five of its branches in June last year.
Empire cinema also closed multiple sites last year after falling into administration last month.
The company made its decision following “a thorough assessment of all available options”.
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
