Luxury movie theater chain IPIC to stay open during sale process

Luxury movie and dining chain IPIC Theaters will remain open during a court-supervised sales process including its Colony Square location in Midtown Atlanta.

TonetoATL in February first reported that IPIC had filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice saying the location was set to close April 28, with 163 employees losing their jobs.

But a spokesman said all its theaters will remain “operational throughout the Chapter 11 process, which allows the Company to continue to conduct business as usual while pursuing a sale.”

The Atlanta IPIC, with nine screens, opened in December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides luxury recliners and high-end food service. The movie theater business has struggled to regain its footing, with traffic down by about one-third from before the pandemic.

A significant portion of the moviegoing audience has opted to stay home and watch films on streaming services instead. Hastening this shift, production companies have reduced their theater output and shortened exclusivity windows.

Regal Hollywood off I-85 inside I-285, which had 24 screens, shut down early last year after 25 years of existence.

Two CMX Cinebistro locations, both of which opened in 2019, also recently closed. A Peachtree Corners location shut down in December, followed by the one in Alpharetta earlier this month. CMX Cinebistro has a similar model to that of IPIC.

According to comScore, the Atlanta IPIC location had its best year in box office revenue in 2023 at $4,462,931. It ranked 13th out of 78 metro Atlanta theaters that year in revenue.

But its performance stalled. Last year, IPIC generated $4,284,689, ranking 15th out of 76 theaters.

The most popular movie theater in metro Atlanta last year was Regal Atlantic Station, with revenue of $9,245,742. That is up 20% year over year, likely due in part to the closure of Regal Hollywood 11 miles away.

IPIC, based in Boca Raton, Florida, has 13 dine-in theater locations with 100 screens in California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Washington.

Actress Tasha Smith speaks before a screening of "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" at IPIC Theaters at Colony Square in Atlanta. (Rodney Ho/AJC 2024)

Christopher Escobar, who runs independent movie theaters the Tara and the Plaza, is skeptical of the “luxury” recliner/food model that IPIC chased.

“There is no evidence a fancy version of someone’s living room is a sustainable business model,” he said. “You increase food costs and reduce capacity but only increase ticket prices 10 or 20%? And the real estate rental costs in parts of Atlanta are insane.”

Besides rent, he said the labor costs for IPIC’s model are high even if those employees are largely part-time and low-wage.

IPIC owes about $205 million under a secured credit line and as much as $15 million to vendors, suppliers and other unsecured creditors, according to its Chapter 11 filing.

At Colony Square, IPIC also operates Serena Pastificio, an upscale, full-service Italian restaurant next to the movie theater.