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Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection
- narag 6y agoI 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 great time. I had a great time. Sad to see them close. Hope they can come back to life somehow.
- rantwasp 6y agoTo be fair, Cirque du Soleil is closer to art than it’s to circus.
- otabdeveloper4 6y agoIt's basically Chinese circus with better production values.
- core-questions 6y agoEver seen the Falun Gong sponsored Shen Yun production?
- lostgame 6y agoWhy on earth is this downvoted? I saw Shen Yun here in Toronto, and also the recent Cirque one, and I've gotta say, Shen Fun really took the cake for me. Stunning.
- smabie 6y agoProbably because Shen Yun is the propaganda arm of Falun Gong. That doesn't make the show any less cool, though.
- colordrops 6y agoYou mean audience-sponsored Falun Gong front?
- nradov 6y agoI watched a Shen Yun show. There was certainly some Falun Gong propaganda but otherwise the show was quite enjoyable.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tmikaeld 6y agoCirque 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 those that haven't seen their VR experience, try and see it, it's jaw-dropping good.
- clintonb 6y agoCirque 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.
- tmikaeld 6y agoI thought they where more permanent than just a few days, if so, that's impressive considering their show quality (Which probably differ a lot if they are travelling)..
- chrisdhal 6y agoThey are in places like Las Vegas where they have multiple "permanent" (as in years long runs) shows. They also have traveling shows that will stay for a few days in a city and generally have their own tents and such that they setup, they don't use existing buildings or arenas.
- bane 6y agoThere's a documentary on the traveling show logistics I remember seeing one time. It included a traveling school container so that the children of the employees could maintain an education.
- charlesju 6y agoThey're probably not closing, just bankruptcy to restructure their debt.
- cooldevguy 6y agoCan’t say we did not see this coming.
- narag 6y agoWhy? Were they unsustainable in any way? When I went to their show, the tickets were sold out very fast. It was long ago anyway.
- grahamburger 6y agoI'm sure they were doing fine until the pandemic.
- mav3rick 6y agoLol ? Who is going to see this right now. Travel is fundamental to a live show.
- narag 6y agoThere 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.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jcampbell1 6y agoIt 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.
- stu2b50 6y agoThere's a teeny tiny obstacle to live audience performances right now, I think it was that one beer company.
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- aeontech 6y agoIf there is one company that deserves a bailout... Cirque du Soleil is a cultural treasure.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoThe 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.
- runawaybottle 6y agoThis 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.
- xwdv 6y agoWe will not have a vaccine this year, period.
- MuffinFlavored 6y agoI might be like... extra retarded for saying this but... with 153k cases in Florida and 3.5k deaths (2.3%), is it really that bad? I can only imagine how many hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Florida citizens have it/have had it and had no symptoms and aren't getting tested (which would drive the death percentage down something fierce). I feel like I have a higher chance of dying driving down the street. Am I being ignorant?
- MrGilbert 6y ago> Am I being ignorant? Not, it's called 'optimism bias' [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- paxys 6y agoCirque 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.
- malkuth23 6y agoThe layoffs and restructuring in 2015 was to get slimmer for a sale. Guy sold 90% of the company off right after for 1.5 billion. Cirque has been run by bean counters since even before the sale even went through. Covid is destroying the entire entertainment industry. Huge entertainment companies, staging and rental industry, broadway theaters, touring etc are just getting hammered. In some ways, Cirque is more likely to come through than most since they have the cash flowing in from Quebec government.
- hobofan 6y agoMaybe around the world is also where they found more success? My parents have been visiting their shows in Germany for the last few years, and they've been sold out (or close to it) every time. I'm sure that the permanent location in Berlin they had planned would've also been a success for at least a few years.
- ogre_codes 6y agoOuch, I was planning on seeing a Cirque show in May and obviously it was cancelled and refunded. In my opinion, it's a good value for the money. Hopefully we'll see them recover in some form or another.
- dehrmann 6y agoEarlier discussion today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23691298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23691298
- tomjuggler 6y agoLive entertainment is the least "Essential Service" of all. Most of the professional performers I know are making masks to try and survive. Hey, anyone looking to hire an ex-circus performer? My digital cv is here https://circusscientist.com/cv https://circusscientist.com/cv Mostly Android apps but I can do Wordpress, data input, server management, creative coding...
- smabie 6y agoWhat did you do in the circus? How'd you get into tech?
- tomjuggler 6y agoI run a successful entertainment business here in Durban, started off as a street performer (Juggling, Unicycling, Rope Walking and Magic) after dropping out of an I.T. degree course. Started off in tech just solving business problems, like the company website and booking system, making my own LED equipment for performance and also as a hobby for fun. Most of it is documented on my CV, and on my blog and tutorial site https://circusscientist.com https://circusscientist.com The show does go on(line): https://bigtopentertainment.co.za https://bigtopentertainment.co.za My dad was a professional programmer (Cobol and Fortran!!) so I have been programming since I was a kid actually.
- neonate 6y agohttps://archive.is/984pa https://archive.is/984pa
- akampjes 6y agoFor those that haven't seen a Cirque show, they've recently started putting 1hr samples on YouTube. Very very different to 'traditional' circus with a lot more theatre where many of the performers are essentially professional athletes with theatre skills. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=RDEMP3dHAEi0ZvUl0krV3THZNw&feature=share&playnext=1 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=RDEMP3dHAEi0ZvUl0krV3T...
- MarioKartBowser 6y agoClowns lost jobs -- oh wait, its art.
- LatteLazy 6y agoThis is exactly what bankruptcy protection should be for. Cirque (and 1001 other businesses) have a viable future ahead of them. They just need their creditors to be held off for 6 months. The alternative is that a valuable business is destroyed and no one (not even the creditors) gets much back. As a brit, I envy the US their bankruptcy process. It is a lot less punative than the UK system...
- luord 6y agoAmaluna is by far the best live performance of anything I've seen in my life. I seriously hope they manage to come back from this. Their shows are magical.