AMC Theatres postpones reopening again in U.S. amid pandemic

LOS ANGELES, July 23 (Xinhua) -- AMC Theatres, the largest U.S. movie theater chain with Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group owning a majority stake, announced Thursday that it will again postpone reopening as the number of new COVID-19 cases is growing at an alarming rate in some states in the country.

AMC said in a press release that the company is currently planning to reopen its U.S. movie theatres in mid to late August. AMC had previously planned to resume theater operations at approximately 450 U.S. locations on July 15 and then delayed reopening to July 30 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"This new timing reflects currently expected release dates for much anticipated blockbusters like Warner Bros.' TENET and Disney's MULAN, as well as release dates for several other new movies coming to AMC's big screens," the company noted, adding approximately one-third of all AMC cinemas in Europe and the Middle East are already open and are operating normally.

The announcement came days after the decision of Warner Bros. to delay the release date for Christopher Nolan's original sci-fi action film "Tenet" for the third time. The Hollywood studio said Monday it will share a new 2020 release date imminently for the film with a reported budget of over 200 million U.S. dollars.

Disney announced last month that its China-set live-action film "Mulan" had been postponed again to August 21.

"Tenet" and "Mulan" are set to be among the first to greet moviegoers when cinemas reopen in the United States amid the pandemic. The two blockbusters are the hopes of Hollywood and U.S. cinema owners to salvage this summer season.

Founded in 1920, the AMC is now the largest movie exhibition company in the United States, the largest in Europe and the largest throughout the world with approximately 1,000 theaters and 11,000 screens across the globe.