Tallinn's Cinamon T1 IMAX cinema closed
An IMAX cinema at T1 Keskus mall in Tallinn has closed its doors due to rent arrears.
The cinema is operated by the Cinamon chain, and has been closed since Wednesday, Delfi reported, and the T1 Keskus as landlord says it is planning to let the space out to another tenant.
"On Tuesday, T1 Center sent a notice of termination of the lease agreement to Cinamon's operating company Saturn Investments OÜ. The reason for this was Saturn Investments OÜ's long-term and worsening rent arrears. As of Wednesday, there will be no film screenings or other events in the cinema premises," said T1 Keskus CEO Tarmo Hõbe.
Hõbe added T1's plans for leasing out the commercial space will be discussed in more detail in the coming months.
Cinamon's parent company's debts had been mounting up, Hõbe had earlier said. "Both the Estonian and global cinema business have been undergoing changes in recent years. Unfortunately, the past few years have been commercially very difficult for Cinamon, located in the T1 center. Saturn Investments' debt to the landlord has been steadily increasing, and no solution or improvement in the situation was in sight. T1 had no other option but to terminate the lease agreement."
The company reportedly owes €255,634 to the Tax and Customs Board (MTA).
Cinamon is part of an international chain, with its operations in Estonia owned by Saturn Investments OÜ.
Founded in 2011 and with 22 people on payroll as of the end of March, Saturn Investments is mainly involved in movie screenings.
The company has not submitted a financial report for the 2024 fiscal year. In 2023, Saturn's sales revenue stood at €2.7 million, and the company reported a net profit of €1.3 million, up from a loss of almost as much in 2022.
Cinamon had previously operated a multiplex cinema in Tartu, but this closed in 2020, while its cinema in Tallinn's Solaris Center was taken over by Apollo several years ago. In 2022, Cinamon announced it was pulling out of running the IMAX cinema at the Kosmos movie theater on Pärnu mnt in Tallinn. That facility is now a cultural center. This left only the T1 Mall cinema still being run by Cinamon, though the company has also operated the Telliskivi open-air cinema in the Telliskivi Creative City (Loomelinnak).
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Annika Remmel
Source: DElfi
