The judge overseeing Cineworld's bankruptcy case provided some much-needed levity during a recent hearing centered on the financial future of the world's second-largest movie theater operator.
Judge Marvin Isgur told Kirkland & Ellis attorneys representing Cineworld he enjoyed seeing yet another courtroom presentation. Throughout Cineworld’s five months of bankruptcy proceedings, attorneys have shown clips and images from hit Hollywood movies to help tell the movie theater chain’s story and underscore the importance of major film productions to the company's profitability.
Last week, the Cineworld team said the success of the film "Avatar: The Way of Water," the highest-grossing movie of the year, proved that if the movie chain had more blockbuster films, more profit could be generated. Upon getting an update on the status of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the judge revealed something about himself.
"If you want me to scare everybody, I have no idea what Avatar is, but I appreciate the PowerPoint," Isgur said during the hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston. The movie is the sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time.
An attorney, feigning shock, told Isgur there was a Houston theater in Cineworld’s chain showing the film right then. Isgur told him conflict laws barred him from going to the suggested theater. "I guess I could go to a non-Cineworld theater without breaking the law, but I can't purchase anything from the estate," he said.