A report filed in the Superior Court of Quebec details the reasons for the financial difficulties which pushed the parent company of the Just for Laughs comedy festivals to cancel its flagship event and seek shelter from its creditors.
The filing filed Thursday by an insolvency trustee shows that the Just for Laughs Group (JPR) posted a net loss of more than $7.9 million during the first 10 months of 2023.
Among the factors the administrator said caused its revenue to fall was a comedy festival in London in March that resulted in a loss of about $800,000 after ticket sales failed to meet expectations.
The JPR Group also lost approximately $2 million during the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal in 2023. According to the trustee, the company knowingly organized the festival at a loss in an attempt to match the scale of the one organized before the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19.
The production of the musical Hate was another costly initiative.
The trustee affirms that the changes made to the rules for monetizing videos on YouTube and Facebook as well as the decision of the TVA Group not to buy the 24e prank tv show season The gags of the company also reduced revenues.
A spokesperson for the JPR Group declined to comment on the legal filing. The company indicated in a March 5 press release that it would undertake a restructuring process to improve its financial health and hoped for a return of the Just for Laughs festivals in Montreal and Toronto in 2025.
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