"Alamo Drafthouse Arizona Theatres File For Bankruptcy"

[Jim Cassedy]

"Another One Bites The Dust" (sort of . . . )

"Alamo Drafthouse Arizona Theatres File For Bankruptcy"

The franchise owner of Alamo Drafthouse’s three dine-in movie theaters in Arizona has filed for Chapter 11
amid the impact from exhibition’s nationwide closure during the coronavirus pandemic.

The filing only pertains to the Phoenix-based franchises of Alamo Drafthouse in Tempe, Gilbert & Chandler,
not the other corporate owned theaters of the Austin, TX chain.

The owner of the three venues, Craig Paschich, made the news public in the Arizona Republic yesterday.
The owner hopes that they eventually reopen. Paschich is reportedly working with Alamo HQ to figure out
the theaters’ next steps and to financially re-organize.

Filing for bankruptcy is a safe haven for exhibitors, by which they can re-negotiate their high-priced leases
with landlords. Many big chain circuits, who haven’t filed Chapter 11, are already renegotiating leases.

Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey is having the state’s stay-at-home order expire today, which means, that the
cinemas which he closed on March 20 can reopen tomorrow Saturday. Of those open this weekend are three
in Arizona: the Glendale 9 Drive-in Glendale, AZ; the Uptown 3 Theatre in Sierra Vista & the Oasis in Nogales.

Even though movie theaters in some states have been given the OK to reopen, some have decided to stay
closes due to the lack of big studio fare. It just doesn’t make business sense when they’ve either furloughed or
laid off staff, and have put a pause on paying their landlords. The first major titles expected to come down the
pike are Solstice Studios’ Russell Crowe road rage movie Unhinged on July 3, Warner Bros.’ Tenet on July 17
and Disney’s Mulan on July 24.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The worldwide exhibition industry is most certainly going to be quite a bit different "post virus". It will also be interesting to watch for a spike in the numbers after a lot of theaters have reopened. I know that Georgia is seeing big spikes after reopening things and Tennessee allows full capacity in restaurants beginning on the 20th.

[Frank Cox]

It costs money to re-open after being closed for an extended period of time. In the case of a theatre, the most obvious one is new concession stock to order since the old stuff has probably expired by now, and probably a bunch of other things that I can't think of right off-hand. So an outfit that had enough money to remain in existence for the closed period might not have enough to actually re-open.

[Marcel Birgelen]

If you keep your "house clean" and your equipment working, the cost to reopen should only be the cost of stocking new concessions. Maybe you want to spend a bit on marketing to let people know you're open again.

Those who haven't properly maintained their equipment will be in for a ride, as we've seen here on the forum already. Machines used to be running day and night (or close to it) don't want to be sitting abandoned in a proverbial corner. It's the same with cars, trucks, planes...

[Leo Enticknap]

If you keep your "house clean" and your equipment working...

I think we can speculate with reasonable confidence that enough theater operators won't to cause some interesting challenges as the reopening ramps up. I'm guessing that the technical managers of the megachains, in combination with their NOCs, will have put strategies in place to maintain projection and sound in a good-to-go state, but there is a significant risk that this won't happen with smaller operators that have more limited resources.

Once question I meant to ask but forgot at last week's ICTA webinar, is just how many Enigma cards, ICPs, IMBs, IMSes, etc. do the manufacturers have stockpiled in the event that there is a sudden demand for hundreds, if not thousands of units, because of lost certs?

I could be worrying about nothing, and the education campaign we've all been doing with our customers has worked. But if it hasn't, then assuming that we're likely looking at (in the USA at least) a large scale soft opening in mid-June in preparation for the first serious releases on the July 4 weekend, then if a significant number of screens have gone down because of media block/cert issues, that is going to stretch the parts and tech labor supply chains to the limit.

[Bobby Henderson]

Aside from possible technical issues with booth equipment due to being shut off for a long time, some theaters may end up dealing with more basic things as a consequence for staying shut: like MOLD.

Here in Lawton, our old Carmike 8 theater (whose building has been boarded up for years now) had some issues with mold even when operating full time. That building is probably fully ate up with mold now. Might as well bulldoze it now. It wouldn't surprise me if the Patriot 13 theater that replaced the Carmike 8 runs into the same problems. Not only can mold build up in the walls, ceilings, HVAC system duct work and other areas out of sight, it can build up in the theater seats too. All sorts of organic material can build up in the seat cushions to feed mold really well.

[Mike Blakesley]

Hmm, well we have been selling curbside popcorn and concessions every weekend since March, and we've been busy enough that I've had to restock twice, so no issues with expired products for us.

And, we have run at least one movie every week since the shutdown, sometimes with my wife and I (and maybe a couple of friends) watching, and other times when nobody wanted to watch anything, I would just run a show for nobody while I'm at work.

In short, anybody whose equipment fails after this shutdown because they didn't take care of it, is just not being a good custodian of their business. I do feel for the ones who were not able for one reason or other to do the curbside thing, but it has been the difference between life and death for us here.

[Jim Cassedy]

some theaters may end up dealing with more basic things as a consequence for staying shut: like MOLD.

I was actually going to write something on this topic several weeks ago, but never got around to it.
I have witnessed mold incursion several times while visiting theaters that have been closed up for some time.
From my observation, it seems to be more of a problem with big, old, single screen auditoriums, built without
modern insulation. Big auditoriums like that seem to develop their own micro-climate inside when closed for
long periods. On warm days, the sun hitting the roof generates heat, some of which radiates downward into
the auditorium where it meets the cooler air, causing water to condense on many surfaces. Needless to say,
a cold, dark, damp auditorium is the perfect environment for mold (and God knows what else) to thrive.

Attached are a couple of pictures I took inside a large single-screen theater here in San Francisco, shortly
before it was torn down, This is an extreme case, and the theater had been closed for about two years at
the time these pictures were taken, but it illustrates my point.
CoronetMold_1.jpg
CoronetMold_2.jpg


One of the reasons I was given access to this location is that somebody wanted to see if there was
some way to salvage all or part of the curtain & masking material. But we found the curtain to be
one massive mess of mold, and so no effort was made to salvage (or even touch) it.

[Carsten Kurz]

...and a reason to wear protection masks even back then...

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yeah, mold is no joke, but I somehow can't believe that you just close the doors behind you and not return while being closed. If you check your premises regularly, you'll detect a mold or mildew situation soon enough and you can start preventive measures.

If you're a small (family) operations, I guess you care about your property too much to let this happen. If you're a big chain, I hope you have care-taking somewhere on your agenda. Maybe the situation is different if you're AMC and you're struggling to find the cash necessary to reopen.

[Richard Coleman]

I apologize if some find this post repetitive since I posted one much like it on a different thread, but the topic of mold has come up here again. And, I know about the mold problems a closed theater can have. I owned one that was closed for an extended period while I was an out-of-state owner trying to sell.

Mold liked my seats a lot. Mold likes anyplace with organic material to consume, moisture (humidity), and warm temperatures. I think mold's favorite food must have been coconut oil or butter topping from the popcorn, and also body oil from the customers.

When I discovered the mold I cleaned it off, but it came back. I discovered something called grapefruit seed extract (GSE) worked well to kill the mold and keep it from coming back. Bleach may also work, but can damage fabric. Vinegar works better than bleach, but can have too strong a smell for extensive use over large areas.

And, what is everyone going to use to sanitize their theater seats between shows? I'm wondering if GSE will work since it can be used as an anti-microbial agent. You greatly dilute it for cleaning, and it doesn't have a smell. It should be safe for skin contact since it is sold in health food stores as a supplement. Can anyone suggest an alternative that will be safe for the skin and lungs of people filling seats soon after they've been cleaned?

[Leo Enticknap]

One of my service contract customers is in a tropical, coastal location where the temperature rarely goes below 75 and the RH rarely goes below 60.

I got an SNMP warning yesterday evening to the effect that their Q-Sys core was overheating. When I asked the (furloughed) technical manager what might be going on, she told me that all the equipment should be working - the racks in the booth were left on to permit remote monitoring - but that they shut off the HVAC when the venue was forced to close in late March.

It didn't occur to me to ask if they were checking for mold growth on the seats (1,200 of them - it's a large auditorium), carpets and drapes. I truly hope that they are.

[Richard Coleman]

At least the kind of mold that grew on my seats was not toxic black mold. That would be a much bigger problem. I could see that permanently closing a theater's doors. The kind of mold I had looked more like the picture posted earlier in this thread... white or maybe light gray.

I can't say what temperature or relative humidity levels are ok against mold growth, but if they get high enough, then rest assured it will grow if nothing is done. You don't need an indoor micro-climate with water dripping from the ceiling. The HVAC would have helped, but it's costly to run with no money coming in. Maybe have it run less often to save money by setting to a higher temperature. I did that after I found the mold, along with cleaning with GSE.

Mold is all around us. It grows when conditions are right. If you have it growing, don't despair. You can clean it yourself (maybe not if it's black). I could see drapes being hard to clean. If they are synthetic like mine were, they won't mold unless contaminated by some organic substance first. I had only one spot on a drape in the entire theater about the size of a greasy hand print, and it was down low where it was easy to clean.

[Lyle Romer]

The worldwide exhibition industry is most certainly going to be quite a bit different "post virus". It will also be interesting to watch for a spike in the numbers after a lot of theaters have reopened. I know that Georgia is seeing big spikes after reopening things and Tennessee allows full capacity in restaurants beginning on the 20th.

Georgia hasn't seen a spike in anything and if there had been it would certainly have not been related to movie theatres opening with no new product to show. Since their phase 1 reopening, the daily deaths in Georgia are on a clear, downward trend. The daily cases may have gone up slightly from the lowest numbers but still have stayed below the peak seen prior to the reopening. If anything, the cases are trending downward and that is with increases in testing so that you expect to find more cases. Worst case looking at the data (they delay 14 days before they finalize the number for a day) is that the daily new cases have stayed flat since the reopening began.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Not sure what news you read Lyle, but both Texas, Florida and Georgia have seen spikes. Atlanta area is still a hot bed for the virus. Neither Govt is logging these extra deaths so they can make themselves look good. Georgia's spike was about two weeks ago and it has since plateaued. If you are interested in keeping tabs on whats actually happening then this link is the place. Note the charts in the lower right corner are all still increasing.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html