How Kodak is trying to turn around after teetering on bankruptcy

On Jim Continenza’s first day on the job as Eastman Kodak executive chairman in 2019, he got a call from a star Hollywood filmmaker telling him the company was making a big mistake.

The photography technology company was in the process of shutting down its acetate factory, which makes one of the key ingredients used in film. Christopher Nolan, the director behind major movies like “Inception” and “Oppenheimer,” urged Continenza to stop the process.

“He goes, ‘Do not turn this off. Please take a look.’ And I did,” Continenza, now CEO, told CNBC. “He was right. I started looking at it because I shoot 35 millimeter [film], and I’m like, ‘Why would one of the greatest directors of all time even have this conversation?'”

Continenza, a self-proclaimed “turnaround specialist,” said he quickly realized how central film was to Kodak’s roots, and how it could be one of its biggest strengths as he fought to bring the company back from teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Fast forward roughly seven years, and multiple 2026 Oscar-winning movies, including “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners,” were shot on Kodak film. It’s part of a bigger trend as the category sees a resurgence fueled by both a nostalgia for film in Hollywood and by younger consumers.

That road wasn’t smooth, though. The company declared bankruptcy in 2012 and reemerged a year later. Then it cautioned last year that its financial conditions “raise substantial doubt about Kodak’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

In the second-quarter earnings where it made that going concern statement, Kodak posted a 12% decrease in gross profit, with millions in debt obligations.

But Continenza said it was one step in a longer process toward rebuilding the company to its former success.

Last month, the company’s earnings report looked different. Its fourth-quarter gross profit reached $67 million, a 31% increase from the year prior. Kodak also said it had reduced its annual interest expense by roughly $40 million.

Continenza said at the time that the results were signs of the long-term plan he began executing in 2019. He told CNBC that he chose Kodak as his final company to revive before closing his chapter as a C-suite executive, having previously served in leadership roles at communication companies including AT&T and Lucent.

“Here’s what our goal is: We’re going to create jobs for the next generation. Make no mistake, we’re going to fix this company and put it on a stable foundation and put building blocks to grow all the systems,” Continenza said. “We didn’t put in what we need, we put in what we want, and that’s a difference.”

In a digitally evolving society, Kodak has been fighting to keep its place and relevancy.

The company’s 2012 bankruptcy protection came after it failed to improve its finances as digital photography…