The suspension of film screenings came as a result of “a decision beyond the control and strategy” of the administration, it stated in response to the Lusa news agency.
In the same statement, LeiriaShopping adds that it is “monitoring the situation and actively working to ensure the best solution.”
According to the shopping centre’s administration, the future for the complex’s cinemas “will always involve ensuring the most diverse offer possible to its visitors and the Leiria community.”
The closure of the Cineplace cinemas in Leiria comes about two weeks after the exhibitor closed the cinemas it operated in shopping centres in Guarda and Caldas da Rainha (Leiria), citing the implementation of a Special Revitalisation Plan (PER).
The decision resulted in the total shutdown of eight movie theatres in the Cineplace complexes at the La Vie shopping malls in Caldas da Rainha and Guarda, leaving both cities without regular movie screenings.
In the case of Leiria, seven screens at LeiriaShopping are left without cinemas, a facility that Cineplace had operated since 2010.
Leiria continues to offer cinema at the CinemaCity complex and also at the José Lúcio da Silva and Miguel Franco theatres.
According to the Citius portal, the exhibiting company presented a revitalisation plan approved in 2021 that enabled it to regain management capabilities.
Cinemas closed in Portugal
According to the most recent data from the Portuguese Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA), in 2025 Cineplace operated 62 movie theatres across 12 complexes, ranking second-largest exhibitor, behind NOS Lusomundo Cinemas, the market leader with 218 screens.
Of these 12 complexes, Cineplace closed its cinemas in Portimão and Algarve Shopping, in Guia, both in the Faro district, as well as in Madeira Shopping, in Funchal, and Rio Sul Shopping, in Seixal (Setúbal), in 2025.
Among the cinemas operated by Cineplace, the General Inspectorate of Cultural Activities (IGAC) had already told Lusa that the Ministry of Culture authorised a request to change the activity status of the four screens at Estação Viana Shopping, in Viana do Castelo, at the shopping centre’s owners’ request.
The request for “allocation to a different type of activity” in six of the 12 Cineplace cinema screens in Braga, in the Nova Arcada shopping centre, was still under consideration.
Government response
After the end of film screenings in various spaces, the Minister of Culture, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, announced the creation of a working group to reflect on film exhibition and the closure of cinemas in the country.
In December, Margarida Balseiro Lopes told Lusa that this working group, which includes IGAC and ICA, would “look at the history of the last three years” regarding requests for declassification and would present conclusions in the first quarter of this year.