Kodak Theatre to be renamed amid company’s financial crisis

PanARMENIAN.Net - Eastman Kodak Co. aims to cut costs in its restructuring by giving up its expensive naming rights to the Kodak Theatre, a modern Hollywood landmark that has been home to the Academy Awards for the past decade.

Just weeks away from the 84th Annual Academy Awards broadcast, Kodak is seeking bankruptcy-court permission to escape the $75 million, 20-year sponsorship agreement it signed in 2000.

Kodak, whose motion-picture film is not only used to make Oscar-winning movies but has also received its own golden Oscar statuettes for film science and technology, said the "significant annual fee" associated with the contract is no longer worth it.

"The debtors have evaluated the contract in consultation with their professional advisers and determined that any benefit related to these rights likely does not exceed or equal the debtors' costs associated with the contract," the company said in court papers filed Tuesday, Jan 31, according to the Wall Street Journal.