Two major theaters at the Sundance Film Festival are in jeopardy after their owner filed for bankruptcy. Metropolitan Theatres Corporation, a Los Angeles-based corporation that operates Redstone 8 and Holiday Village Cinemas four in Park City, Utah, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 29.
According to its bankruptcy filing, Metropolitan has about $8 million in loans and owes more than $300,000 to the owners of its 15 movie theaters. Bankruptcy is framed in Chapter 11, which means that the company would attempt to reorganize its assets instead of liquidating them.
Reached via IndieWire, a Sundance representative said the festival is in the early stages of drawing up plans for the 2025 festival, which includes its venues. It’s still early in its timeline and process, but the festival is keeping an eye on what Metropolitan does next.
The metropolitan bankruptcy filing considers 15 movie theaters. In addition to the two movie theaters in Park City, they have five theaters in Santa Barbara (which also serve the Santa Barbara Film Festival). Metropolitan President Dave Corwin told the Santa Barbara Independent that he expects two of those theaters, Arlington and Metro 4, will not be affected since the company owns their properties. For the other metropolitan theaters, he hopes that the company will be able to solve their problems by renegotiating the leases.
“Ideally, there should be no changes, but depending on what happens, theoretically there may be a reduction or adjustments in the facilities, but we’ll see later,” he told the outlet.
But according to bankruptcy filings (via KSL. com and KPCW), Metropolitan owes about $313,000 in debts to landlords and spends $2. 6 million a year to maintain its rentals in Southern California, Colorado and Utah. In addition, it is indebted to ATP’s associate for $2. 1 million after taking on some of the metropolitan debt in 2021 and lending more cash to the company in 2023. It also owes $5. 2 million to Santa Barbara-based American Riviera Bank and has a remarkable loan balance of $2. 1 million. Loan related to the economic crisis.
Metropolitan is a family-owned company with more than a hundred years of history in Southern California, having operated some of the most historic silent movie theaters and vaudeville palaces in downtown Los Angeles and pioneering the arrival of Spanish-language cinema in the 1960s. Los Angeles. Metropolitan did not respond to IndieWire’s request for comment.
Metropolitan is one of many exhibitors that have recovered from Covid. Arclight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres closed permanently in 2021, and Cineworld, parent company of Regal Cinemas, also filed for bankruptcy last year.
“Last year, we got 20% more than we did in 2022,” Corwin told the Santa Barbara Independent, “but it was still 20% less than in 2019. “
The next hearing on the Metropolitan’s bankruptcy case will take place in April in downtown Los Angeles.
Additional reporting via Tom Brueggemann.