In a move that will impact hundreds of employees in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, VFX group Technicolor Creative Studios announced in a memo to employees that the U.S. offices of Mikros Animation (Plankton: The Movie, Orion and the Dark), The Mill and MPC Advertising will be closing.
The WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) letter sent on Friday, Feb. 21 cited “sever financial challenges” for the company, and alerted employees that shutdowns could be effective as soon as today (Monday, Feb. 24).
The notice states, “Despite exhaustive efforts — including restructuring initiatives, discussions with potential investors, and exploring acquisition opportunities — we have been unable to secure a viable path forward. Unfortunately, this leaves us with no alternative but to acknowledge that the company may be forced to foreclose.”
Paris-based Technicolor also intends today to file for administration in the United Kingdom through its Technicolor Creative Studios UK banner, and multiple outposts in France will be subject to receivership proceedings. U.K. employees were advised in a letter Sunday that there would be Monday afternoon call between administrators Interpath Advisory and impacted employees.
In France, the affected studios are Mikros Image, The Mill France, Technicolor Group, Technicolor Animation Production and Technicolor Trademark Management. In its letter to French employees, the company wrote:
“The purpose of the receivership procedure is to enable a company to continue trading, and may result in the assets and employees of each of the companies in the procedure being taken over as part of a disposal plan presented by a third-party buyer. In practice, placement in receivership has no impact on the operations of the companies concerned, which continue to operate and pursue their contracts and commercial relations in the same way as before the receivership.”
Technicolor’s collection of studios employs more than 10,000 people worldwide.
Deadline published both of the weekend letters, initially shared to Reddit.
Despite a legacy of Oscar, BAFTA and Emmy-winning visual effects work and an estimated $523 million in annual revenue, Technicolor has been struggling with its finances. Contributing to these challenges are the echoes of the significant production impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actors/writers strikes, as well as the increased difficulty of sustainable profitability in the new streaming landscape.
Reel News 360, which released the shutdown memo in full, reports that its sources say Technicolor will cease trading on Wall Street as of today. The company is currently controlled by several investment funds through firms including Barings, Farallon Capital and Pimco.
Both The Mill and MPC (Moving Picture Company) were established in London, in 1990 and 1970, respectively. The Mill’s U.S. outposts are in New York (established in 2002), Los Angeles (2007) and Chicago (2013), along with other international expansions. The studio has produced VFX and animation for projects including Detective Pikachu, Bumblebee and the Harry Potter film franchise. It was acquired by Technicolor in 2015 and then merged with MPC Advertising in 2022.
Mikros, previously known as Technicolor Animation, was founded in Paris in 1985, and has studios in London, Brussels, Liege, Montreal and Bangalore as well as offices in Culver City, California. Its feature film animation and VFX credits include Thelma the Unicorn, PAW Patrol: The Movie & The Mighty Movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. The company was previously owned by Mediacontech from 2007 to 2015, when it joined Technicolor Group.
[Sources: Reel 360 News, Deadline]
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