Terrebonne Cinemas Guzzo reopens after months-long closure

A Guzzo cinema sign is seen on a store front in Montreal on Tuesday, June 18, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

The Terrebonne Cinemas Guzzo Méga-Plex recently reopened, after the chain had closed down all of its locations in February.

At the time, the Quebec Superior Court said maintaining operations had become “untenable” for the once dominant cinema chain and ordered that all of its assets be transferred to a court-appointed trustee.

In an interview with CJAD 800 Radio‘s Elias Makos on Wednesday, the theatre chain’s CEO Vincenzo Guzzo said the reopening of the Terrebonne location symbolized his “resilience.”

“We will come back, and I can guarantee you that I will get back everything that I lost,” Guzzo said.

Guzzo explained that while his company faced financial pressure, its assets – especially real estate – are worth significantly more than his debts, which he called a “third leverage.”

“So, we started by the best theatre. Our most profitable theater was the Terrebonne. That property never went under receivership. Those lenders were collaborative. They understood. They were made whole,” Guzzo explained.

In 2024, the court ruled in favour of a court-appointed receivership.

“We’re going to move to the Pont-Viau [location] and Lacordaire. And then the next step will be to replace those three theatres with three brand-new theatres on the exact sites.”

Additionally, Guzzo outlined his plan saying he would demolish the old theatres and redevelop the sites with commercial and residential projects, including 6,000 to 7,000 apartment units over the next four to five years.

When asked how his company came to be under such financial strain in the first place, Guzzo declined to comment but noted that the details were “complex” and potentially “defamatory.”

“But I can guarantee you that in the next 12 to 24 months, the story will come out, and everybody will realize that there was no mismanagement,” he emphasized.

“What there was is a lot of bad luck for a lot of people. And we need to remember that there are movie theatre operators in the U.S., the second largest operator in the world, Cineworld that filed for bankruptcy. I tried to avoid filing under protection till the end.”

The first three Guzzo locations closed in November, including its flagship location in Montreal’s Marché Central.

Guzzo also spoke about the personal toll caused by his financial difficulties, saying that as his second marriage was falling apart, so, too, was his relationship with his main bank.

The CEO owes substantial amounts of money to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), his main creditor.

He also cited the 2023 Hollywood writers’ strike as a major contributor to his cash flow problems.