Notorious nightclub Marquee wants to bring down the curtain on the AMC cinema chain’s plan to use its name for a Las Vegas restaurant.
In a suit filed today, owners of the Chelsea hotspot say they’re readying their own expansion to Sin City, and that the Midwest movie-theater company is “interfering” with investment deadlines.
Marquee — which wants a permanent injunction and unspecified damages — alleges that AMC has already infringed on its trademark rights by opening “The Marquee” restaurant in a Kansas City, Mo., cineplex last year.
In addition to the name, the suit says various design elements of the eatery were “obviously copied” from the 10th Avenue disco, where a passed-out patron was carried off and raped last year, and where Texas beauty Laura Garza disappeared in 2008 before being found murdered in April.
But “the AMC restaurant is part of an ordinary cinema complex that on closer inspection does not present the chic, upscale appearance, style, service and clientele of a trend setting, stand-alone nightclub such as plaintiff’s Marquee nightclub,” the Manhattan federal court filing says.
“For example, AMC’s restaurant serves hot dogs, breakfast and other low-priced foods, typical of movie theater fare, not of a top level night club.”
AMC, which operates nearly 300 theaters and sells 2 million tickets a year at its AMC Empire 25 in New York City, didn’t immediately return a request for comment.