IPIC Theaters files for bankruptcy for second time in 7 years, plans to close Westwood and Pasadena locations

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Another theater chain in Southern California is calling it quits.

IPIC Theaters, the luxury dine-in movie chain, has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in seven years and plans to close its Westwood and Pasadena locations.

Last month, LOOK Dine-In Cinemas closed three of its Southern California locations after also filing for bankruptcy.

“IPIC is one of the more luxury expensive movie theaters, so I think if they’re filing for bankruptcy, that pretty much means that no movie theater is safe at this point,” said Ben Steinberg, the founder and leader of Save Your Cinemas, a movement dedicated to preserving independent cinemas. “I think it’s definitely a major wake up call to, not just California, but all of movie theaters around the world.”

Steinberg started the Save Your Cinema campaign about six years ago to raise awareness for independent theaters. He said the industry has faced major challenges, including the COVID pandemic and now – streaming.

“I also think, too, studios need to have longer theatrical windows,” he said. “Because right now, there’s really no incentive for the average consumer to go out to a movie if it’s going to be on streaming in three weeks.”

But theaters facing challenges is nothing new.

“Movie theaters are here to stay,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “They’ve taken on every challenge that you can imagine, from TV to streaming to a pandemic to strikes, and they still draw people into the theater.”

In fact, according to Comscore, 2025 was the highest grossing year at the box office since the pandemic.

“When we see records being broken like ‘Zootopia 2’ at $1.8 billion plus worldwide and ‘Scream 7’ doing well, ‘Project Hail Mary’ on the way, ‘Hoppers’ actually opening right around the corner … I think it’s just, that’s the nature of the business, the ups and downs,” said Dergarabedian.

Steinberg said one way to help is by getting out to see movies in theaters, especially the independent ones, and maybe even making it a weekly outing.