Cinema chain Picturehouse still hasn’t paid its landlord almost £3m in rent arrears, despite losing a high-profile Court of Appeal case earlier this year ([2022] EWCA Civ 1021; [2022] EGLR 34).
Picturehouse, owned by US cinema giant Cineworld Group, built up £2.9m in unpaid rent at its Piccadilly Circus venue during the Covid pandemic.
At the High Court and the Court of Appeal, lawyers for the company argued that Picturehouse should be exempt from paying rent during the Covid lockdowns because it was unable to use the premises as a cinema. Using the venue as a cinema was, they argued, “fundamental to the basis of the lease”.
The cinema chain lost, and was ordered to pay landlord London Trocadero LLP the arrears.
At a hearing at the High Court today (15 December) Nicholas Trompeter KC, representing the landlord, said Picturehouse still hasn’t paid.
He said that, soon after the July ruling, lawyers representing Picturehouse’s US parent, Cineworld Group, gave assurances that it intended to pay. However, they said that payment would be delayed because of difficulties transferring money from the US.
Trompeter said that Cineworld has since entered into US Chapter 11 insolvency proceedings and now says it cannot pay until it gains permission from a US judge. That might not be until July 2023, he said.
In today’s hearing, Trompeter was seeking a so-called “unless” order stopping Picturehouse from bringing further litigation against the landlord until it pays the arrears.
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