Business AMC Cinemas bans Universal Films after comments on streaming - Major business has a tardfit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52468881

The owner of Odeon Cinemas has banned all Universal films after the studio said it will release new movies at home and on the big screen on the same day.

AMC boss Adam Aron said the ban will cover its 1,000 cinemas worldwide.

It follows comments from NBCUniversal which said the film Trolls World Tour had performed well despite only being available on streaming services.

The move is damaging to cinemas as it will make it less likely people will visit a public screening.

The children's film is reported to have generated sales of nearly $100m.

Trolls World Tour was scheduled for release in cinemas at the beginning of April.

However, with cinemas currently closed because of the Covid-19 lockdown, it was offered as a Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) on streaming platforms such as Apple TV.

Jeff Shell, president and chief executive of NBCUniversal, parent company of the film studio, told the Wall Street Journal the film had "exceeded our expectations and demonstrated the viability" of streaming.

"As soon as theatres reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats," he said.

But in a letter to Universal Studios' chair Donna Langley, Mr Aron accused the studio of trying to "have its cake and eat it too".

He said: "AMC believes that with this proposed action to go to the home and theatres simultaneously, Universal is breaking the business model and dealings between our two companies."

He added: "Going forward, AMC will not license any Universal movies in any of our 1,000 theatres globally on these terms."

John Fithian, chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners, accused the film company of using the pandemic to alter the existing release structure.

"Universal does not have reason to use unusual circumstances in an unprecedented environment as a springboard to bypass true theatrical releases," he said.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionAMC owns the Odeon chain of cinemas
It has already been announced that another Universal film - The King of Staten Island - will have its premier on video on demand in June.

But there are a number of other major Universal movie releases which had been planned to be shown in cinemas later this year, including the next instalment of The Purge horror movie franchise.

Mr Aron said the ban could be extended to other studios if they chose to go down the same route as Universal.

Though he said: "Universal is the only studio contemplating a wholesale change to the status quo."

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Seems this business crashing CAN be blamed on Trolls!

 

[2021Murder]

Universal weren't fools, certain execs over there have been pushing for this since a decade ago. Tower Heist was supposed to be offered for $60 same day, as a trial but that got pulled at the last second. Universal like Paramount and Fox; knew they didn't have a damn thing to offer in terms of blockbusters. so universal went heavy on trying to be the mid-range/fast casual type of studio. Which is why so much of their releases are comedies and horrors and kids films. Which oddly enough is also all types of films people are more likely to enjoy in crowds and bring/pay for others to go to (shout out to marketing dept!) So this quarantine basically ended up being the exact scenario for them to try out that crazy plan people have been pushing all this time, and it worked. Even if theaters tell them to go fuck themselves, almost every film they have coming out was made for less than $20 million so they will always make a profit, its just how much thats the real question. But considering they just made more in the last 3 weeks on a shitty sequel to a shitty lego film knockoff than they did the entire time they had the other one out. I'd say its a success. The only reason Invisible Man wasn't put out immediately like this was because we weren't officially shut down yet either.

i'm a sucker for experiences and even viewing Gemini Man in 120fps 3d 4k at the best theater in the country, it's still rather shit compared to watching at home. If you Remember, back in the 2000s theater chains really started hyping up 4k projectors too, that was because the average gheto plex in the US had a roughly 480i resolution if tested even as late as fucking 2009. You started seeing IMAX and 3d everywhere too for the same reason, theaters essentially trying to outrun big screen TVs, and it clearly didn't work. No one wants to see an 8k,5d,240fps Judd Apatow comedy epic about a junkie from Staten Island. Even trying to go full dinner theater; the logistics and costs mean you can't have many locations, and honestly transitioning into an even shittier version of Midevil Times isn't going to take you very far.

TL;DR Theaters are going to end this decade the way film developers did the last decade and copier manufactures the decade before that. The quarantine is just speeding it up

 

[Whatsup bud?]

How would studios make up for losses if they switch to streaming? You cant charge for each viewer like at a theater and nobodies going to pay for a streaming movie over a certain price...

 

[tehpope]

I want to mention even if you wanna see obscure shit, there's boutique distributors like Alamo Drafthouse, AGFA, Vinegar Syndrome, and Severn Films releasing obscure old shit in pristine HD on bluray. A lot of those you can even stream on Amazon Prime. Theaters are mostly a thing of the past. I don't doubt some will still exist and maybe something like a big Season Premier / Finale, movie marathons, or live events will get people in the theaters, but I think VOD is the future.

The only thing I see theaters being used for is 3D. But Hollywood has never gotten 3D right. And 90% of 3D films are created in post, not with 3D in mine during shooting. I don't see 4k 3D tvs getting released when even HD 3D tvs never took off.

I wonder if the big boys will take more risks by making more "edgy" content that would land them a NC-17 or R rating. Especially since they don't have to play by the MPAA's rules.

It's always been easy. You're forgetting these are normalfags, even the simplest things are a monumental challenge to them.

Yes, but getting the newest films usually means either waiting for a screener to leak, waiting for the home video release to leak, or watching a recording someone made of a movie screen to see. At least now you can the real deal probably hours after it releases to streaming.

How would studios make up for losses if they switch to streaming? You cant charge for each viewer like at a theater and nobodies going to pay for a streaming movie over a certain price...

$20 to rent for 48 hours. Probably like $100 to have unlimited views. Those prices being during initial release and will come down in price as the film gets older. Mind you, the film won't be on any service to watch as many times as you like. After a few years, it'll get released to most streaming platforms. This plan is sort of like how films were released to Home Video in the 80s.

Spoiler: Sperging about Iteration of films

Thinking about this more, I hope the move to VOD doesn't incentivize producers and distributors to start rushing out films too early to meet streaming demand. Resulting in films with half finished quality to them (bad takes, unfinished effects, adding additional scenes, et al). And then they just fix it later down the line and swap out the bad copy for the better one under the radar. Sort of like what happen with Life of Pablo. Where Kanye rushed the album out to coincide with his fashion show. And then later fixed issues, remastered the album, and added additional tracks.

I'm not talking about preview screenings of films. But speaking of that, with more major films being VOD, they can more accurately gague how well their film will do by using info gained from sigining up to streaming services to more accurate find people to preview movies and have them score it. Just randomly pick someone within the demo your looking to market the film to and ask them to screen it and give their feedback. Give them a 48 hour window and have them sign something that basically says we'll sue ya if this copy finds its way to torrents sites.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Ironic that so many people here are complaining about the theater going audience but also want to go to Alamo Drafthouse, which has the single most obnoxious audience on earth. I'd rather go to a hundred movies with a normal American audience than one with the fart sniffing hipsters delicately sipping their IPAs at the Alamo Drafthouse.

Yeah, that's not exactly a huge number.

You're a fucking mong. AMC + Regal make up like 85% of the movie theater screens in America. This ban is devastating.

 

[Niggernerd]

Movie theaters are disgusting enclaves of biohazardous filth, especially the major chains. I wouldn't particularly care if they all went out of business, got paved over and turned into parking lots.

Remove theaters bring back arcades.

 

[Wonderful Id]

I’ve wanted to go to an Alamo Drafthouse for over a decade but none are near me.

I love going to the one about an hr from me. They got a couple of huge screens, great seats, wonderful food, and just a general fun personality about the whole thing.

 

[moocow]

$20 to rent for 48 hours. Probably like $100 to have unlimited views.

That reminds me of the old Divx. That shit sucked ass. Pan & scan only (no letterboxed/widescreen releases), no special features, no surround sound, full DVD price, playable for 48 hours, then another DVD's worth of a fee to unlock it for unlimited play. All players phoned home regularly to renew authorizations.

Then when it inevitably failed and they shut down operations, they couldn't (or refused to) update firmwares to make the players permanently unlock all discs. All they would do is set them to allow all discs to play for 2 years (the max "lease time" their idiotic spec would allow -- there was no such thing as "actually unlimited") as they phoned home one last time. Today, all Divx discs are unplayable because no player will allow playback without permission from the mothership that no longer picks up the phone.

Modern day paid streaming will suffer the same basic weakness -- even if you pay whatever ridiculous price they want to charge for unlimited viewing, it'll only actually be available until they shut the service down. No more playback after that. Also no playback if they have a service outage or your internet borks. It's the Stadia model for movies. And Stadia's dead in the water.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

The AMC near me is my theatre of choice, their seats are nicer than the Cinemark. I'm not gonna complain that theatres die off or change in some way, it's the nature of the world and the market of competition. There's a locally owned theatre nearby that's been in business for decades showing second-runs for cheap that I don't mind going to.

It's hilarious that AMC is trying to strongarm the hand that feeds them, as their entire business is being the middle man.

 

[derpherp2]

Hey if they want the cinema scene to die faster, by all means go for it.

Maybe their next attempt should be lowering the price of cinema food, you know something people keep asking for for generations.

 

[MembersSchoolPizza]

Oh no, don't throw them into the briar patch, AMC...

What ever will I do if I don't have to drive 15 miles to pay 15 bucks to sit in a cold room with coughing, laughing, braying jackasses, to spend 15 dollars on 15 cents worth of soda and popcorn just to watch a movie?

 

[FAQnews Correspondent]

Modern day paid streaming will suffer the same basic weakness -- even if you pay whatever ridiculous price they want to charge for unlimited viewing, it'll only actually be available until they shut the service down. No more playback after that. Also no playback if they have a service outage or your internet borks. It's the Stadia model for movies. And Stadia's dead in the water.

Most people rent movies, so a small fee for a movie rental will fare better than the Stadia disaster.

 

[tehpope]

Modern day paid streaming will suffer the same basic weakness -- even if you pay whatever ridiculous price they want to charge for unlimited viewing, it'll only actually be available until they shut the service down. No more playback after that. Also no playback if they have a service outage or your internet borks. It's the Stadia model for movies. And Stadia's dead in the water.

Pretty much. They'll offer "unlimited" viewings but reserve the right to pull the movie at any time and then recharge you more or less money when they put it back up.

 

[melty]

It's the same story over and over, across industries.

1. Middleman industry crops up, initially as a needed conduit between Producers and End Users
2. Middleman industry see itself as needed, and while initially true, demands more and more of a cut from producers and end users
3. Middleman industry, seeing itself as absolutely indispensable, mistakenly believes it's as important as Production industry, and that end users like and want it. Demands more concessions from both producers and end users.
4. Producers and end users grow to hate middleman industry, but can't do anything about it. Middleman industry recognizes this and demand even more concessions.
5. Technology appears that facilitates transactions between Producers and end users, but does not benefit middleman. Middleman industry throws a shitfit and attempts to block technology and convince producers it's needed, often by strong-arming them, which works initially. Middleman may attempt to co-opt technology in a way that benefits them and no one else, which fails.
6. Technology eventually wins out and middleman industry finally dies in flames, despised by all.

See: Blockbuster, GameStop, record industry, e-commerce, this, etc.

 

[DocHoliday1977]

Stupid companies thinking they have leverage to fight technology....same story, second verse, a little but louder and a little bit worse.

 

[Freedom Fries]

The only thing surprising about this is that Trolls World Tour or whatever did well. The move from Universal is a good one and makes sense. The move from AMC makes sense and is probably their only realistic reaction.

It's always a good idea to cut your nose off to spite your face.

IDK. Hear me out. The movies that go to streaming at home will not sell seats in theaters or at least not nearly enough seats to make purchasing the rights and blocking off the time economically smart.

 

[Absolutego]

Ironic that so many people here are complaining about the theater going audience but also want to go to Alamo Drafthouse, which has the single most obnoxious audience on earth. I'd rather go to a hundred movies with a normal American audience than one with the fart sniffing hipsters delicately sipping their IPAs at the Alamo Drafthouse.



You're a fucking mong. AMC + Regal make up like 85% of the movie theater screens in America. This ban is devastating.

At least at Alamo Drafthouse I can expect an usher to escort out loud, obnoxious people the moment they start interrupting the movie. IPAs may be pretentious and the dine-in aspect doesn't avoid the disgusting food noises, but any bratty kids or loud low information voters telling the teevee character how to act get booted out right quick.

 

[Sped Xing]

I don't get IPAs.

Put way too much hops in the beer, so it's excessively bitter, step four profit.

I guess it's like "death pepper" wings. Some people just get off on ingesting nastiness.

 

[XYZpdq]

I've seen a few movies with loud other people in the theater where it worked out nicely, like first Toby Spiderman I caught a matinee along with Bad Girl School on a field trip, and a bunch of trash girls hollering about the drama was kinda fun to see Spidey's usual shit really connect with randos like that.
Freddy vs Jason worked well with a gaggle of loud fucks going "OH NO SHE GONNA GET STABB!" and stuff, too.

 

[MuuMuu Bunnylips]

You're a fucking mong. AMC + Regal make up like 85% of the movie theater screens in America. This ban is devastating.

So? How many movie theaters are open right now? Practically none. And I guarantee you it'll be close to next year at least before that's back to normal, either due to necessity or from public fear.

 

[CDWLTY]

There are some movies that are worth going to theaters for. My local Imax screened both Bladerunner movies, my dad took me to see them. It was amazing and an experience I will never forget. I actually like movie theaters, I even went to see that shit anime movie Promare at one and liked it.

A good imax movie is pretty damn radical. Problem is, they aren't making many good ones anymore. The relentless pursuit of Chinese profitability kills off a LOT of interesting stories in the womb. Hopefully you like the next decade long twilight saga derivative or 'Transformers go to Hong Kong Pt IV'. Rereleasing great older stuff on imax is one of the more successful launches they have these days. Seeing that one batman movie on it was gorgeous. I can't think of anything really worth the $30 for a couple tix on anything that's come out in a while. Maybe bladerunner, but that's a couple years ago already.