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Hi! I'm Zach, the Editor-in-Chief here at The Cinema Spot. The TCS team and I are always hard at work to put out the best content we can, and we're even developing a few new features! Be sure to keep an eye out for the latest contests, daily news articles, comprehensive reviews, and more!
Only hours after NBCUniversal’s CEO Jeff Shell remarked the success of Trolls World Tour and what it could mean for the future of film post-pandemic, AMC Theaters has decided to no longer play Universal Studio’s films at any of their locations. This all occurred following a report published by The Wall Street Journal that stated Trolls World Tour performed extremely well using the Video On-Demand model, earning roughly $100 million in the first three weeks of it’s release.
What Shell told the Wall Street Journal:
“The results for Trolls World Tour have exceeded our expectations and demonstrated the viability of PVOD. As soon as theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats.”
In response, AMC Theaters, the largest chain of movie theaters across the globe, made the decision to no longer show the studio’s projects in their theaters. AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron penned a letter to Universal, stating:
“It is disappointing to us, but Jeff’s comments as to Universal’s unilateral actions and intentions have left us with no choice. Therefore, effectively immediately AMC will no longer play any Universal movies in any of our theaters in the United States, Europe or the Middle East.
This policy affects any and all Universal movies per se, goes into effect today and as our theaters reopen, and is not some hollow or ill-considered threat. Incidentally, this policy is not aimed solely at Universal out of pique or to be punitive in any way, it also extends to any movie maker who unilaterally abandons current windowing practices absent good faith negotiations between us, so that they as distributor and we as exhibitor both benefit and neither are hurt from such changes. Currently, with the press comment today, Universal is the only studio contemplating a wholesale change to the status quo. Hence, this immediate communication in response.
Universal’s unilateral pronouncements on this issue are unpalatable to us, as has always been the case, AMC is willing to sit down with Universal to discuss different windows strategies and different economic models between your company and ours. However, in the absence of such discussions, and an acceptable conclusion thereto, our decades of incredibly successful business activity together has sadly come to an end.”
Whether this situation will work itself out before films such as Candyman, No Time To Die, and Halloween Kills are now scheduled to be released is up to the two parties. For those of us with only AMC theaters near us, we can only hope that we get the opportunity to see some of these highly-anticipated films on the big screen when theaters re-open and films release.
To stay up to date with this ongoing situation between AMC and Universal, be sure to follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_)!
Source: THR
Hi! I'm Zach, the Editor-in-Chief here at The Cinema Spot. The TCS team and I are always hard at work to put out the best content we can, and we're even developing a few new features! Be sure to keep an eye out for the latest contests, daily news articles, comprehensive reviews, and more!
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