Cineworld reopened its 4DX venue at London’s Leicester Square on July 19. It had been boarded up since mid-2023 by the landlord, understood to be property company Criterion, due to unpaid rent.
The 4DX venue is a small site that is part of the Cineworld Leicester Square complex. It is on a different lease, understood to be fixed for 99 years and expiring in 2035, with an annual rent charge of just £5,000.
Warner Bros’ Twisters screened first and now Marvel/Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine is showing on the 4DX screen.
“We’re excited to welcome customers back,” said a Cineworld spokesperson.
The reopening comes at a time when questions are being raised over the future of other Cineworld and the Cineworld-owned Picturehouse sites as the company looks to restructure in the UK.
According to Sky News, Cineworld is aiming to close a quarter of sites, renegotiate rents on a further 50 and retain its strongest 25 sites.
Landlords include companies such as Landsec, Legal and General and Criterion Capital as well as some local councils at Picturehouse sites.
Sources have told Screen the landlords are “not taking the negotiations very well”.
Picturehouse closures
A number of Picturehouse sites have recently closed or been earmarked for closure including Bromley, Fulham Road and Stratford East.
One site, however, that looks as if it will stay open for now is Hackney Picturehouse. “The property is leased to Picturehouse Cinemas Limited and the tenant has given no indication they are looking to close or surrender the lease,” a Hackney Council spokesperson told Screen.
Meanwhile, a petition to save the six-screen Art Deco cinema Picturehouse Bromley had reached 5,482 signatures as of July 24. But the organisers behind the month-long campaign have now acknowledged there is little chance the venue will be kept open.
Local resident Jon Lock set up the Facebook page Save Bromley Picturehouse a month ago. A public meeting on July 11 at the venue was attended by an estimated 300 to 400 people.
“We’ve mobilised something in people. They feel a great deal of warmth and affection to that building, to the cinema and the staff. They’re genuinely upset they’re losing it,” said Rob Carrick, chair of Save the Bromley Picturehouse.
However, Carrick added: “We know that, on the first of August, Bromley Picturehouse will close. That’s given. We know that it [the cinema] is not going to remain.”
Claire Binns, Picturehouse managing director, said the cinema simply had not attracted enough audiences. “It’s heartwarming to see the response from the community following the very difficult news about Bromley Picturehouse closing in August,” said Binns. “We’re hugely grateful for the support, but admissions remain far from where they need to be, and the cost of operating a cinema is only increasing.”
The Bromley campaigners’ goal now is to ensure arthouse films continue to be shown in the area, even after the Picturehouse closes.
“We are turning our attention as a collective of movie lovers, to developing plans as to what comes next,” Carrick said. “We want to be able to run some form of niche arthouse cinema. Do we look at other community venues? Is the current building viable? At the moment, we don’t know.”
Further details of the “re-branded” group’s plans for a community-based cinema initiative will be announced early next month – and the organisation will also then launch a website.
“We are losing a venue but we are not losing the people that went to those films. What has shone through is this absolutely huge groundswell of love and passion for cinema. A large number of people want that to continue,” Carrick said.
Although the UK exhibition sector is facing huge challenges as overall attendance figures decline, operators are still looking to open new venues.
Earlier this month, Odeon, the UK’s largest operator, announced plans to open three new Odeon Luxe sites, in Peterborough, Norwich and Uxbridge. A 10-screen Vue cinema is also due to open in Basildon on July 25.
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