Interesting. Cineworld is giving itself a little wiggle room, but not all that much:
Following yesterday’s flurry of dramatic exchanges involving AMC, the National Association of Theater Owners and Universal, Regal Entertainment owner Cineworld Group has now added its voice to the chorus of windows controversy surrounding Trolls World Tour. The world’s second biggest circuit says its policy with respect to the window “is clear, well known in the industry and is part of our commercial deal with our movie suppliers… We make it clear again that we will not be showing movies that fail to respect the windows.” Cineworld also calls Universal’s decision to opt for a PVOD release on the DreamWorks Animation sequel, “completely inappropriate,” adding that it “certainly has nothing to do with good faith business practice, partnership and transparency.”
Said wriggle room being that they’ll ban movies that violate the ‘window’ (essentially, the time between theater and video release) on a case-by-case basis. But between them and NATO*/AMC, Universal’s in a bad spot unless the other movie studios decide to jump in on their side. Not that I can think of a reason why those studios would want to, in the short term. When the theaters reopen there’s going to be money in it. If Universal doesn’t want any of that money, the other studios will be happy to take in Universal’s share.
Moe Lane
*Yeah, that confused me too. It’s the National Association of Theater Owners .
I feel like the advances in home theater technology (wide screen TVs and high resolution movies) along with the other conveniences of watching at home (not the least of which is you can pause to take a potty break at your convenience) means that movie theaters have been on a trajectory towards a more niche market for a while now.
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I don’t think movie theaters will go away completely, but I think the days where movie theaters are major distribution players are limited, if they’re not over already.
The multiplex is dead .. it just hasn’t fallen down yet.
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Between the aforementioned pause button, no driving, no searching for parking, no (well, less ..) sticky mystery-glop on the floors, no (well, fewer..) pimply-faced youths manning the refreshment stand ..
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… I don’t see how they compete.
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I do think single-screen “event” move palaces could work, though .. movies as a family or group bonding activity .. in a clean, comfortable, beautiful setting .. while seeing-and-being-seen ..
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Mew