Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas Going Down With Industry Ship, Says Company Source

PORTLAND-Robert Redford’s new-concept Sundance theater chain is preparing to close up shop this week following its inability to secure new financing in the wake of industry-wide troubles that forced its money partner General Cinemas Theaters to file for bankruptcy protection last month. The situation, caused by a boom in nationwide screen counts, forced other movie thater chains to file for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, and now reportedly has the industry giant Regal Cinemas doing the same.

“The industry is sort of in a tailspin, and we are caught in the middle,” a Sundance company source tells GlobeSt.com, confirming that his company has laid off about a dozen Los Angeles-based employees and is not reviving existing projects in Portland or elsewhere, as reported in yesterday’s issue of the entertainment industry trade publication Variety. “General Cinemas was the majority financing party in the Sundance Cinema projects, so now we have a situation where the folks who were paying the bills aren’t able to pay the bills anymore,” says the source. “We’ve been trying for the last month to find a way to proceed and, unfortunately, have not, so we are essentially in a wind-down situation.”