Canada’s No. 1 movie theater chain, Cineplex, has pink slipped close to 5K part-time workers given Ontario’s recent decision to close cinemas amid the Omicron surge. Cineplex closed their theaters in the Canadian province, effective today.
“Because of the mandated closures of our theatre and entertainment venues across Ontario, we made the tough but necessary decision to once again temporarily lay-off our part-time workforce, impacting nearly 5,000 roles. We are eager to get our team back to work once and for all as soon as these temporary restrictions are lifted,” a Cineplex spokesperson told Deadline this afternoon.
The temporary closures of cinemas in Ontario is expected to last until Jan. 28. Cineplex plans to hire the part-time staff back at that time. The upside for the staffers is that they can take advantage of unemployment subsidies in the Canadian province during their time off.
Cineplex operates 67 multiplexes in Ontario. This past weekend at the box office, Ontario repped just 2.1% of North American ticket sales, but over 40% of the Canadian box office.
Sony recently moved their Marvel movie, Morbius, from Jan. 28 to April 1. The next big wide releases after that time is Feb. 4 with Paramount’s Jackass Forever and Lionsgate’s Moonfall.