Cinema chain Picturehouse has lost a lawsuit concerning £2.9m in rent arrears built up during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a court ruling, the cinema operator, which is owned by Cineworld, hasn’t paid rent on its flagship Picturehouse Central cinema at London’s Trocadero, W1, since June last year.
Picturehouse had argued that, as it rented the premises to be used as a cinema, it would be “uncommercial” to expect it to pay during periods when it cannot be used to screen films.
The ability to use the Piccadilly Circus venue as a cinema, Picturehouse argued, is “fundamental to the basis of the lease”.
It is also suing Criterion Capital. the Trocadero’s owners, for rent it says it “accidentally” paid in March 2020.
Picturehouse has been in legal dispute with Criterion’s London Trocadero (2015) LLP vehicle since last October.
The case was heard in July and, in a ruling handed down at the High Court in London today (28 September), judge Robin Vos backed the landlord.
According to the ruling, between March last year and May this year the Picturehouse Central was only open for 71 days owing to the pandemic. Over that period, the ruling said, takings were £247,000, compared with almost £9m the year before.
In his ruling, the judge said that much case law supports a “long-standing principle that an inability of a tenant to use premises for the purposes intended at the time the lease was granted will not provide a defence to a claim for the payment of rent”.
Even so, he said, “There can be no general rule. Each case will depend on its own facts.”
He awarded summary judgment in favour of London Trocadero (2015) LLP, with a reduction of £621,000 for various insurance costs.
Cineworld, which operates in the US and the UK, made headlines in October last year when it said it planned to “temporarily suspend operations”, closing all its cinemas and making 45,000 staff redundant.
London Trocadero (2015) LLP v (1) Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd (2) Gallery Cinemas Ltd (3) Cineworld Cinemas Ltd
Business and Property Courts (Robin Vos) 28 September 2021
