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When is UA shutting down?

Rumor has it, UA is $650 million in debt and they are filing chapter 11 and they will not pay any film rent owed or any of their other bills but will continue to operate somehow.

What does this mean to us managers and employees who have managed to hold our dumps together? Will we have a job?

Or will we even get our pay checks? Is it time for us to start looking for a job now? Or is our jobs secure? It seems like they are being real secretive around here and we can't get any answers. Does anyone know more about this? I do know that in one of our theatres they did not tell anyone they were closing until Friday when everyone showed up for work
and they were handed their pay checks and told they no longer had a job. Is this the future of UA?

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The one single problem with this industry is that it has way too many competitors willing to push out the little guy so they can put on a crap show and not have to worry about it.

The studios need to require standards, not like they do now, but actually verify them and refuse to allow prints to substandard theaters. I know it will never happen, because so few producers are interested in art and good show, but rather just the money money money.

I miss 70mm mag. Damn EPA.

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I can't comment directly on the UA situation, but the tactics followed when a large circuit is in trouble are often like this ( more or less in order)-

1. New construction is cut back or halted.
2. Payroll is tightened at lower levels.
3. Major maintenance is deferred.
4. Bonus programs are eliminated.
5. Suppliers are put on 60-90 day payments. Expensive suppliers are eliminated, and price becomes the overriding factor. A $2
toy broom that falls apart is purchased instead of a better constructed $3 lobby broom that will last twice as long.
6. An executive "goat" is sacrificed or fired. Often the goat is clueless and doesn't have anything to do with the problem at hand.
The error the goat makes is not being a "team" player or being disliked by more than one person in the office. Firing them sets
up a tension in upper management and the office (except for those executives that hired in with "golden parachutes.")
7. District supervision is eliminated.
8. Higher paid managers are forced out, unless they have "connections."
9. Offers of purchase are tendered by other circuits.
10. Deadwood theatres are sold (if possible), or closed, or run on minimal schedule to fulfill the lease requirements. Remote
theatres are sold to competitors.
11. Corporate office staff and a few executives are let go or find work elsewhere. Sometimes this is the first time the person
responsible for the financial problems is ever affected directly.
12. The circuit is taken over by another or placed in receivership. If the latter is the case, then:
13. Unprofitable theatres are stripped and closed. Leases are broken.
14. Marginally profitable theatres may or may not close. A letter threatening the landlord with default, and demanding rent relief sometimes gets a lower rent.
15. One or more highly profitable theatres may be sold to infuse cash. (This can occur at any time, even before step 1.)
16. Owners and chief executives are forced out. Parachutes fail as the company can't meet the obligations within those agreements and the courts tear them apart. The circuit is broken up or rebuilt with fresh blood.

You should ask yourself-
Am I overpaid? If so, unless you plan on marrying the boss's daughter, look for work.
Am I underpaid? Ditto. Your efforts will not be appreciated and you are wasting time.
Is my theatre profitable? If highly profitable, look for work. A purchasing company will want one of their own managers
running it. At best, you'll be moved to a slower location to "prove" yourself.
Is the theatre unprofitable? Bail out. Again, you are wasting your time.

If your theatre makes a little money and you are satisfied with the wages but not happy, you probably won't be touched. You are
seen by executives as a fixture. Replacing fixtures costs money. The same goes for hourly employees, although less so.

You might think this is a brutal assessment, but when big money is on the line, a lot of little people get squashed or pounded into tight holes. If they don't like it, they are replaced with someone more desperate, less caring, or less competant.

If you look for work with other circuits, do yourself a favor and learn all you can about them. Choose the wrong circuit and you could be tending a losing theatre for years. Choose the right one and you could be fast tracked, depending on your abilities.

I'm sure I've missed some things, and may have some steps out of order, but that is the basics of a failing circuit situation.

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n san jose cailf . ua shut down its downtown theater with out tell any one they where carry out all the equpment. people where
stiil try to buy ticket to the shows and had bought tickets eary that day

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I think they have finally closed all of their drive-ins. Maybe that is why they are broke!! Of course I know they have some
drive-in competitors that are giving them a fit. HA HA

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you wrote, "finally closed all of their drive-ins." Curious, which did they have and where were they? Larry

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I believe their last was the Westbury in New York. A few years ago they had several.

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I didn't think the Delphi forums were too bad. The ads aren't right in your face, and they seen fairly easy to navigate.

quote:

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This makes my life difficult, and it would be sad, to see the world's first purpose built 70 mm theatre beeing scheduled for demolition, as we have to give up, ...

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What theater is this?

Anyway, I started fixing some things myself. If I could glue a broken thing back together, or replace a stripped screw, I'd do it. I sort of figured: that's what a real projectionist does, and is why the job is worth way more then $6-$7 an hour.

After a while, I get a memo that tells me to stop repairing the equipment. Projectionists are only to thread and operate. At first I was slightly insulted, but then I realized that; It's nothing personal that's all UA expected from projectionists. They probably had a few bad experiences, and just came out with a 'blanket' policy.