Imax Corp. has decided to take 150 employees off as film studios have been withdrawn from the cinema market due to COVID-19.
The large-format film company’s auditoriums did well in China and across Asia when it reopened during COVID-19, but it has reached a crossroads in much of the world. Virtually every scheduled release of a Hollywood movie has been postponed from the fourth quarter to 2021 or later as closings continue and theater safety concerns exist.
“Imax will employ around 150 people for at least two months from October 26,” the company said in a statement. “The move will allow the company to temporarily save, conserve resources and adjust its operations to address the shortage of Hollywood releases in 2020 and the resulting closings of exhibitors in key markets. The vacation days will have no impact on Imax activities in China and Japan, where films in the local language remain on the schedule and the theaters are fully open. “
It’s the first case of vacation or layoffs at Imax since the pandemic began. Other US exhibitors had to let workers go. In contrast, Cineworld’s Regal Cinemas made 40,000 layoffs when its U.S. locations were temporarily closed. AMC and Cinemark continue to operate.
The vacation days do not affect any Imax offices in China and Japan or operations in South Korea and India. Even if the Hollywood pipeline has dried up, there will be 10 local-language releases on the international release calendar before the end of 2020.
Imax’s shares were unchanged at $ 11.37 in mid-day trading. After the slump earlier in the year when COVID-19 spread around the world, the stock has rallied in recent months.
Comments are closed.