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generic cinema seats

Luxury dine-in chain iPic Theaters has filed for Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy in a federal court in Florida amid declining ticket sales and is planning a restructure.

The company said it anticipated “sufficient liquidity to operate the business during an expedited sale process and the formulation of its plan of reorganisation”. iPic operates 13 sites and approximately 100 screens in eight states including California and New York, as well as eight stand-alone or adjacent restaurant locations.

CEO Patrick Quinn said in a statement, “After exploring a range of possible alternatives, the company concluded that a court-supervised sale of assets is in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders. We are committed to continuing our business operations with minimal impact throughout the process and will endeavour to serve our customers with the high standard of care they have come to expect from us.”

iPic emerged from Chapter 11 after a restructure in 2019 and declared, “Moving forward iPic Theaters will have a solid financial foundation with an ability to focus on creating strong operational segments and opportunities for strategic growth to create value for its members.”

The petition, filed on February 26, comes amid ongoing challenges for the exhibition sector. Last week debt-laden AMC Theatres, the world’s largest exhibition chain, announced that its North American and global attendance fell 9.8% in the last quarter of 2025 to 56.3m, adding that it would be closing more sites than it opens in the year ahead. Fourth quarter revenues fell marginally year-on-year to $1.3bn, and annual revenues increased by 4.6% to $4.8bn.

Cinema owners are hoping 2026 will bring the longed-for significant bounce-back in 2026 with a stack of anticipated tentpoles including a slate of 10-13 theatrical releases from Amazon MGM Studios.

Analysts expect North American box office to increase between $500m and $1bn this year. AMC chairman and CEO Adam Aron predicted that European box office recovery would exceed North America this year and could see the best year-on-year gain of the last six years.

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