How Kodak is trying to turn around after teetering on the brink of bankruptcy

On Jim Continenza's first day on the job as Kodak CEO in 2019, he received a call from a star Hollywood filmmaker telling him that the company was making a big mistake.

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

“He says, 'Don't 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 with 35 millimeter lenses. [film]and I'm like, 'Why would one of the greatest directors of all time 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 greatest strengths as it struggled to pull the company back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Fast forward about seven years, and several Oscar-winning films in 2026, including “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners,” were shot on Kodak film. It's part of a broader trend as the category sees a resurgence driven by both Hollywood movie nostalgia and younger consumers.

However, that path was not easy. The company declared bankruptcy in 2012 and resurfaced a year later. It then warned last year that its financial conditions “raise substantial doubts about Kodak's ability to continue as a going concern.”

In its second-quarter earnings in which it made that going concern declaration, Kodak posted a 12% decline in its gross profit, with millions in debt obligations.

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

Last month, the company's earnings report looked different. Its fourth-quarter gross profit reached $67 million, an increase of 31% from a year earlier. Kodak also said it had reduced its annual interest expense by about $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 last company to revive before closing his chapter as a C-suite executive, having previously held leadership positions at media companies including AT&T and Lucent.

“This is our goal: we are going to create jobs for the next generation. Make no mistake, we are going to fix this company and put it on a stable foundation and put the pillars in place to grow all the systems,” Continenza said. “We don't provide what we need, but rather what we want, and that's the difference.”

In a digitally evolving society, Kodak has been struggling to maintain its place and relevance.

The company's bankruptcy protection in 2012 came after it failed to improve its finances as digital photography took off and revolutionized the industry. When it re-emerged the following year as a smaller company, it shifted its primary focus to commercial printing.

Although it is no longer a company largely covered by investors, Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes wrote in a note last year that the emergence of digital technology was a significant setback for Kodak.

“At the time, Kodak management told us that film would coexist with digital cameras and that more photographs would be taken, and that Kodak would have to print more,” he wrote.

Still, Kodak faced its difficulties. Its shares sank more than 35% in 2014, continued to gradually decline over the next few years, and hit an all-time low of $1.55 per share during the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Last August, the man over 100 years old The photography company said it had about $155 million in cash and nearly $600 million in loans.

A Kodak spokesperson said at the time that the going concern language had to be included because Kodak did not have enough liquidity available to pay its debt, which was due within 12 months. Still, the company said it was confident it would repay a significant portion of that loan before it came due by terminating its pension plan and said the disclosure was only a required technical report.

Wall Street investors didn't like what they heard. The stock plummeted from a price of about $7 per share a few days earlier to just over $5 per share on earnings day.

“We could have done a better job on it, because for us it wasn't such a desperate situation, it was more of a GAAP accounting match by date,” Continenza said, adding that it was a “matter of timing” for the loans.

Continenza said Kodak's main challenges were in its “huge tranches” of debt and lack of communication with its shareholders and customers.

The CEO said he never sold a Kodak share and instead bought shares after the company released its operating statement.

“You have to work and invest for the long term, and you have to be methodical, but you have to fix the operations, and I have spent seven years doing that,” he said. “[It’s] a company that's over 130 years old, right? You can imagine what's in the attic.”

Continenza said he has been intentional about instituting long-term changes since taking over the company. He changed about 90% of the company's management, paid off more than $400 million in debt, and reorganized the company's priorities to focus on printing and advanced materials and chemicals.

He said it was also important to be “transparent” with his team and acknowledged that turning the company around would mean layoffs and personnel changes.

“The first thing I always do is look for people who want to keep the company and buy it, and that's what we did,” he said. “I have a board of directors and investors who love what we are doing; we keep them informed and they help guide us.”

Examining what worked for the company, Continenza said he saw an opportunity in Generation Z and the resurgence of film aesthetics. The look of the photographs and videos filmed captures something that “penetrates the heart and soul,” he said.

Kodak leaned into the analog and authenticity trend, investing its resources in its cinematographic capabilities and creating products that interested consumers, directors and filmmakers alike.

Continenza said he also refinanced the company three times and resized its balance sheet.

He seems to have hit the nail on the head on Wall Street. Over the past year, Kodak shares have skyrocketed almost 100%.

“We're doing our job. Stocks aren't supposed to go up, they're supposed to go up, because that's how we grow,” he said. “I don't look at our stock price. I don't care. I couldn't tell you what it is today. I'm a long-term investor.”

Continenza said success for him will mean continuing to improve finances and ensuring Kodak has a solid succession plan to continue its growth.

Although the company is more than 100 years old, he said he likes to treat Kodak like a startup, where all the debt is paid off, the brand is well-loved and only Kodak could, at this point, “ruin it.”

“We don't need to be a $5 billion, $20 billion or $80 billion company,” Continenza said. “We are a billion-dollar global company, but one thing we have going for us is our brand recognition. And make no mistake, around the world, it is loved and loved, and will continue to be.”