As the Co-Founder and now Chairman Emeritus of Michigan-based Emagine Entertainment, Paul Glantz championed an evolution that turned a single, 265-seat theater in 1989 into the 10th largest theater operator in North America with more than 1,000 employees. Paul balanced responsibilities as a CFO, and eventually CEO, of Proctor Financial while growing his burgeoning theater enterprise, raising investment capital from more than 100 private angel investors. During the height of the pandemic when theater’s across the country went dark, he acquired four competing theaters while personally guaranteeing $55 million in debt. In late 2025, Paul sold Emagine to European theater operator Kinepolis.
Joined by Rick Hampson, President of Old National Bank as well as Paul’s banker and friend, we talk with Paul about his entrepreneurial journey, his transition out of the role of final decision-maker for the business, and how character has been central to his success.
Here’s an excerpt:
“[There was a] theater chain based in St. Louis, Missouri, that was the namesake of the particular proprietor,” Glantz says. “When he passed away, his family sold, honestly, at a fire sale price to one of our publicly traded competitors. And I just felt like I could not do that to my investors, and ultimately I couldn't do that to my family, because to have toiled for 30-plus years — 37 years — the last thing I wanted to do was to have a legacy, which was, boy, he did a good job while he was healthy and at the helm, and then when he got ill or died, the thing fell apart, and now we've got to sell it for anything we can get for it. That would not be consistent with my desire to fulfill my fiduciary obligation. And what was interesting about it, honestly, was that — I didn't realize this until the transaction closed — the person who had the biggest sigh of relief was my wife, Mary.”
