This week, AMC Theaters and Universal Pictures sent shock waves through Hollywood by sparking a new deal that would shorten the window between a movie’s movie premiere and its VOD debut just 17 days away. The theatrical window has been a point of conflict between studios and movie theaters for a long time, and it has also been a big problem for Netflix when it comes to getting its original movies played on the big screen. This new agreement could set a new precedent that could change the distribution model forever.
And Regal Cinemas’ parent company Cineworld is not happy about that.
Deadline reached with the CEO of Cineworld Mooky greidinger, and was not contained when addressing the new agreement. The executive of the second-largest movie theater chain in the United States said flatly: “We don’t see any business sense in this model.” Greidinger elaborated:
“While we don’t know all the details and we are always analyzing any movement in the industry, we will analyze it. People need to be aware that Universal’s first big movie is coming in just six months, so there is no pressure here. But we clearly see this as a wrong move at the wrong time. Clearly, we are not changing our policy regarding showing only movies that respect the theatrical window. “
Cineworld’s stance should come as no surprise, as they sympathized with AMC Theaters when they originally promised to ban Universal’s future releases from playing on their screens as long as the studio broke the 90-day theatrical release window. They are now directly opposed to each other as AMC Theaters has completely changed course.
Although this new deal between AMC Theaters and Universal is seen as a game-changing endeavor, it’s important to note that it won’t make much of a difference unless other studios and theater chains make similar deals. As it stands, Deadline says this new deal with AMC Theaters and Universal is more of an experiment than anything else, and it’s only happening in the United States at the moment. After all, there are many unknown factors regarding how this will affect box office revenue and audience engagement with movie theaters.
Honestly, I’m not sure if the deal has a big impact on the movie business. The public has already drifted away from the smaller movies in theaters, choosing to wait for them to hit VOD or having more interest in streaming content from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and more recent streams like HBO Max and Disney +. So the audience that would hypothetically go to theaters to see those movies is already avoiding them. If anything, this may allow underperforming movies to raise more money on VOD. And if the theaters get some of that revenue, that could be good news for them, too.
One of the downsides of this new deal is that medium-budget movies and indies may have less of a presence on the big screen. Movie theaters will be more reliant on blockbusters, which studios need to raise money from the big screen, but that could result in some theaters closing their doors, especially those that play the most in the art room.
However, there is an example of how this deal might work that doesn’t sound so promising. In 2015, Paramount entered into an agreement with AMC Theaters to shorten theatrical windows for Scout Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse and Paranormal Activity: The Phantom Dimension, and the box office was certainly not booming, with the former earning $ 3.7 million and the latter earning $ 18.3 million. However, it should be noted that those films weren’t exactly shooting great reviews, one was a niche horror comedy and the other was a weary sequel to a franchise that was once thriving. Perhaps other films will be more successful.
At the end of the day, it will take time to analyze the results of an agreement like this. Since we don’t know how long this new multi-year agreement between AMC Theaters and Universal will last, we’ll just have to let the results reveal themselves over time.
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