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Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

wsj.com

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Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#11

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

rantwasp wrote: post #6
narag wrote: post #2

I never liked circus. It was mildly interesting in tv or movies. The one time that I went to a show, I was lucky enough to be far from the action: a lion sprayed the two front rows. The smell was everywhere, everything had a sad vibe, even (maybe specially) the clowns. Only trapeze artists saved the evening for me. Cirque du Soleil was an entirely different matter. Everything was shiny, cool, happy. My son had a grea…

To be fair, Cirque du Soleil is closer to art than it’s to circus.

It's basically Chinese circus with better production values.

Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#12

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

The great depression in live performances is truly a global tragedy. If you think restaurants and barbershops have it bad, imagine theaters. For most of them it's basically impossible to do social distancing and remain financially solvent. People may be itching to go out to eat and get a haircut, but it will be a long time before people are going to pack in to an opera house. Couple that with the fact that audiences for ballet, opera, and orchestras skews much older I'm any case, and I fear many of these art forms will face a catastrophic blow in some cities.

Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#14

Post by core-questions »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #11
rantwasp wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Cirque du Soleil is closer to art than it’s to circus.

It's basically Chinese circus with better production values.

Ever seen the Falun Gong sponsored Shen Yun production?

Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#15

Post by jcampbell1 »

narag wrote: post #5
cooldevguy wrote: post #3

Can’t say we did not see this coming.

Why? Were they unsustainable in any way? When I went to their show, the tickets were sold out very fast. It was long ago anyway.

It was sold for $1.5B to private equity in 2015. I am assume it was largely debt financed. This looks like a default on debt and laying off employees. It will likely be back post vaccine, and owned by the current debt holders.

Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#16

Post by narag »

mav3rick wrote: post #8
narag wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Were they unsustainable in any way? When I went to their show, the tickets were sold out very fast. It was long ago anyway.

Lol ? Who is going to see this right now. Travel is fundamental to a live show.

There are many business affected by the pandemic. Depending on where you are, you can ask for some help from government. It won't work for every business of course, but they have a strong brand and a nice trajectory.

Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#17

Post by stu2b50 »

narag wrote: post #5
cooldevguy wrote: post #3

Can’t say we did not see this coming.

Why? Were they unsustainable in any way? When I went to their show, the tickets were sold out very fast. It was long ago anyway.

There's a teeny tiny obstacle to live audience performances right now, I think it was that one beer company.

Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#18

Post by paxys »

Cirque was in trouble long before COVID. They expanded too quickly around the world and spread themselves too thin. None of their shows in the last ~10 years have been blockbusters (most of them already retired), and the novelty of the original Vegas ones has worn off. They tried a theater division which failed. They had already started to restructure their operations and announced layoffs as early as 2015. I imagine the current environment was the nail in the coffin.

Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#19

Post by runawaybottle »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #12

The great depression in live performances is truly a global tragedy. If you think restaurants and barbershops have it bad, imagine theaters. For most of them it's basically impossible to do social distancing and remain financially solvent. People may be itching to go out to eat and get a haircut, but it will be a long time before people are going to pack in to an opera house. Couple that with the fact that audiences…

This holiday season is going to be a real test since we won’t have a vaccine by Novemberish. No ones going to fly out to holiday hotspots, or travel for Thanksgiving.

Vaccine or bust basically.

Re: Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection

#20

Post by clintonb »

tmikaeld wrote: post #9
narag wrote: post #2

I never liked circus. It was mildly interesting in tv or movies. The one time that I went to a show, I was lucky enough to be far from the action: a lion sprayed the two front rows. The smell was everywhere, everything had a sad vibe, even (maybe specially) the clowns. Only trapeze artists saved the evening for me. Cirque du Soleil was an entirely different matter. Everything was shiny, cool, happy. My son had a grea…

Cirque du Soleil certainly are different and work like a tightly knit family, they do have the advantage of not being a traveling show though. Having been back-stage at a circus many times for work, it's a really tough and hard life to live in... They eventually removed all of their animals from their show, not because of external pressure, but because they could no longer care for the animals as they used to. For th…

Cirque has/had multiple traveling shows. They spend anywhere from a few days to a few weeks in each city, depending on whether it’s an arena or a big tent show.
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