Are Odeon cinemas closing and what is the weekend only plan?

6 October 2020, 14:13 | Updated: 6 October 2020, 15:00

Odeon Cinemas has announced that some of its branches will be open on weekends only - here's what we know.

Following the news that Cineworld would temporarily be shutting all its cinemas across the country, Odeon have announced that they will also partially be closing.

The chain, which owns 120 cinemas, has announced that a quarter of its branches will be open on weekends only, after many films have been delayed by coronavirus.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently urged the public to go back to cinemas, saying that he would "encourage people to go out to the cinema, enjoy themselves and support".

However, key film releases - including new James Bond film No Time To Die - have been pushed back, meaning many people haven't been lured back to movie theatres.

According to Film Stories, Odeon emailed customers to tell them that it would be closing many branches from Friday 9 October "in light of the ongoing delays to the release of many new films".

The email added: "We look forward to reopening full-time when the big blockbusters return.

"But in the meantime, we promise to bring you a great choice of big-screen films to enjoy at the weekends."

It is not known what cinemas will be affected.

The news comes after Cineworld announced it will be temporarily closing its 127 branches across the UK.

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In a statement, Chief executive Mooky Greidinger said: "This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable reopenings in all of our markets - including meeting, and often exceeding, local health and safety guidelines in our theatres and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry.

"We are especially grateful for and proud of the hard work our employees put in to adapt our theatres to the new protocols and cannot underscore enough how difficult this decision was."

He added: "Cineworld will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations in these markets at the appropriate time, when key markets have more concrete guidance on their reopening status and, in turn, studios are able to bring their pipeline of major releases back to the big screen."

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