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Cinema North’s theaters abruptly close
posted by
CSWalczak
on
October 20, 2009 at 7:50 am
RUTLAND, VT — All ten of Cinema North’s current theaters were shut down as of October 13. The theaters operate under the Movieplex name and include one theater in both Vermont and Massachusetts, and eight in New York state.
Some news reports indicated that the closings were temporary, but at least one claimed that the chain was filing for bankruptcy.
A sign on the front of the cinema’s doors in North Adams also says it’s “temporarily closed.” All information was wiped from the corporation’s Web site late Tuesday morning. Calls to its headquarters Tuesday have gone unanswered. The Rutland Herald reported that an employee in the corporation’s headquarters said the owners would be not be releasing any information on Tuesday.
North Adams theater manager Scott Ingalls told the Berkshire News Network on Tuesday morning that the closure means the loss of 15 to 20 full- and part-time jobs, including his and a full-time projectionist.
Read more in iBerkshires and in the Rutland Herald.
Comments (14)
Here’s a related article. It would appear that chain’s properties are being sold off.
View link
What theaters do they have in NEW YORK?
LI movies: View link
Click on the states link for new york. Auburn, Dunkirk, Geneva, Hudson, Massena. all out of the NYC region.
I sure that someone else will reopen thin in weeks. It may give Carmike to increase thier New York holdings (They have one in Olean)
“One of them must be a fake.”
The Mansfield Movieplex was closed by Cinema North last March. It was reopened in April by Zurich Cinemas.
all upstate..thanks for the link
Their Carmel, NY theater just shut down…..and why do the webmasters not post anything about the impending sale of 35 National Amusements theaters???????
Thanks
It could be because we don’t know much about which Showcase cinemas will be sold. Sumner Redstone tried selling off about 90 theaters earlier in the year, but he didn’t get any takers. So it’s just too early to say.
To the above….not true. He already had takers on some of the better theaters last time around. But he nit picked and wanted everything sold as a lot. This time, the banks are on him to repay his debts.
Some published reports are saying that he will keep 38 theaters in New York and MA. Just enter National Amusements in news.google.com, and it’s all right there…
CORRECTION TO THE ABOVE: 28, not 38 theaters were reported as being retained by Redstone in the media reports I had read.
So how does closing them all at one time improve Redstone’s chances for an overall sale?
You’d think that having them up & running would make them appear more viable to buyers.
At least they could still sell off individually too stop whatever bleeding he thinks the whole chain is suffering. If that. Cutting their losses in such broad strokes just alienates everyone involved. All those people suddenly put out of work, when it can’t really be necessary.
If they are retaining some theaters, why not figure out why the under performing ones
are doing so, and adjust to remedy it.
Also contacting the local governing bodies of those individual towns affected couldn’t hurt.
To help get the ball rolling on possible theater conversions to cultural or performing arts centers.
I managed one of Cinema North’s theaters in NY back in 2004. They were nothing more than slumlords. A prime example of this is having only 1 service technician to service equipment in 12 theaters spread across New England. They refused to use independent contractors for service and we often had to wait weeks for service on our projection equipment.I was a licensed projectionist in NYC back in the mid-seventies, and not having a service contract was unheard of. How utterly disrespectful to both staff and paying customers! To boot, when they opened the theater I managed, they used old, antiquated projectors kludged together from spare and often obsolete parts. Then they would train concession staffers to be projectionists (thread the film and push this button) and pay them $6.50 per hour. A real joke. The sad thing is that so many good, dedicated, and hard working people are now out of work as a result of their demise. I cannot think of anything good to say about this company, their utter disregard for their employees, or their lack of concern for the safety and comfort of their customers. One of the owners would visit each of the 12 theaters once per year around Christmas time, do a walk-through, and pick up the cash accumulated from gift certificate sales, and then move on to the next facility. A real class act.
Hey,There is an outfit called Epic in the Carolinas that when the A.C. went out in a second run Quad they told patrons to bring a fan to hand fan themselves.No I ain’t making it up, it came from a Former manager.
Sounds like the old days.
Yeah, but certainly not “OUR DAYS”.