Odeon to close select cinemas during the week as pandemic devastates film industry

News follows the postponement of the release of ‘No Time to Die’

Odeon, one of the UK’s largest cinema chains, has announced that it will scale back operations, with some venues set to close during week days.

The move follows the announcement that Cineworld, another of the country’s largest cinema chains, will be closing all 128 UK and Ireland venues temporarily as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Both announcements were instigated by the news that the forthcoming James Bond film No Time To Die  would be released on 2 April, 2021, having been initially pushed back to November from its planned April release.

Odeon has revealed that it will be reducing operating days on roughly 25 per cent of its 120 venues, as of Friday 9 October.

The move was announced in an email sent to customers, which stated that the chain planned to re-open “when the big blockbusters return”.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused many of the year’s biggest releases to be pushed back until 2021, including the Marvel franchise entry Black Widow and the ninth Fast and Furious film.

No Time to Die may have been delayed again as a response to the underwhelming US box office performance of Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Tenet, which was released in cinemas in August.

Although social distancing measures have been put in place in cinemas across the world, many regular cinema-goers remain reluctant to return to screens amid the continued risk of the spread of coronavirus.