The company that owns iPic has filed for bankruptcy.
Photo courtesy of Wade Park
The financially troubled iPic Entertainment dining-and-movie theater chain, which operates one location in Austin and another in Houston, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, August 5, and is seeking a potential buyer or a court-supervised restructuring. In the meantime, the chain’s 16 theaters remain open.
“Our brand is thriving and leads the industry in popularity, but our balance sheet needs to course correct,” founder and CEO Hamid Hashemi says in a release issued Monday by Boca Raton, Florida-based iPic. “Our theaters will remain open during this transition, our employees are being paid, as are our vendors and suppliers.”
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which seeks to reorganize the company’s finances, lists nearly $291 million in debt.
The iPic chain, founded in 2010, operates 16 upscale theaters throughout the U.S., including one in Austin at 3225 Amy Donovan Plaza in the Domain development and one at 4444 Westheimer Rd. in Houston's River Oaks District.
The company says it plans to open more iPic theaters in Texas, but the prospective locations of those new theaters couldn’t be determined. Representatives of iPic couldn’t be reached for comment.
The iPic bankruptcy filing comes on the heels of big news about another dine-in movie theater chain.
Late last month, Austin-based chain Moviehouse & Eatery was purchased by Dallas-based Cinépolis USA, part of a conglomerate that operates movie theaters in 17 countries. Moviehouse & Eatery has five theaters in Texas — two in Austin and three in Dallas-Fort Worth — with another theater set to open in The Woodlands in November.
The musical Wicked is indisputably the biggest Broadway smash of the 21st century, having grossed more $1.6 billion in New York alone and achieving the rare feat of running for over 20 years. All of which is to say that the long-awaited movie adaptation of The Wizard of Oz prequel will most likely be a massive success whether it lives up to what longtime fans envisioned or not.
Part one — yes, this 2 hour and 40 minute film is merely the first act of the musical; part two arrives a year from now — introduces Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the green-skinned witch who goes on to become Dorothy’s nemesis, and G(a)linda (Ariana Grande-Butera), the pink-garbed “good” witch, as they meet at Shiz University in Oz. Glinda is the ultra-popular one with sycophantic hangers-on, while Elphaba is shunned by almost everyone, sometimes including her disabled sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), who’s desperate to make her own space away from Elphaba.
Her mistreatment by others leads Elphaba to get angry, which manifests itself in uncontrollable magic. Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) notices this and takes a personal interest in her, giving her one-on-one instruction in hopes of harnessing her power. In the meantime, Elphaba and Glinda attempt to go from forced roommates to actual friends, although Glinda’s entitled personality is more of an obstacle than anything else they encounter.
Directed by Jon M. Chu and written by original book writer Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, the film does a great job of distinguishing itself from the stage version while still remaining true to what made it so beloved. As Chu showed in his last film, In the Heights, he has an innate feel for how to tap into the essence of the source material while expanding it into something befitting the scope of a blockbuster movie.
In this case, he finds a way to give even greater emphasis to the bigotry that Elphaba faces simply because of her green skin; the fact that she is being played by a Black woman drives home the point even more. The story remains light and fluffy for the most part, but the ostracization/otherness that Elphaba feels is delivered in a powerful way, as is her empathy for talking animals like Dr. Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage), who are facing their own persecution.
Of course, the highlight of the film is Stephen Schwartz’s music, and while not all of the songs are equal in impact, they still make for a cohesive whole. The number of songs and order they appear in the first act is identical to the stage musical, with the standouts remaining “The Wizard and I,” “Popular,” and “Defying Gravity.” While there is some superfluous action and cutaways added to certain numbers, it’s not enough to distract from what makes the songs effective.
Oddly, the progression of the friendship between Elphaba and Glinda works better on stage when the timeline is accelerated, but Erivo and Grande-Butera make up for this slight lack with their fantastic performances. The emotion each brings to their characters fits them almost perfectly, and there’s simply no denying the strength of each of their voices. Bode, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Ethan Slater as Boq, and more make for a solid supporting cast.
The well-known ending of the first act of Wicked is a huge high point that is so good that it almost makes up for the fact that audiences won’t see the second film for a long time. But if part one is any indication, part two should turn out to be another great musical theater adaptation in a decade that has already seen its fair share.
