Support NeoGAF

[ManaByte]

AMC Theatres Refuses to Play Universal Films in Wake of ‘Trolls: World Tour’

AMC Theatres on Tuesday delivered a blistering message to Universal Pictures, saying the world's largest cinema chain will no longer play any of the studio's films in the wake of comments made by NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell regarding the on-demand success of 'Trolls World Tour.'

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Earlier in the day, Universal revealed that Trolls World Tour racked up an estimated $100 million in premium VOD rentals in its first three weeks of play in North America, more than enough to put the film on the road to profitability, according to the conglomerate. That's not far behind the $116 million grossed by the original Trolls in its first three weeks at the 2016 domestic box office on its way to topping out at $153.7 million in the U.S. and Canada and nearly $347 million globally, not adjusted for inflation.

"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," Aron wrote.

"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," he continued. "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."

Added Aron: "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."

AMC Theaters is acting like a mafia boss demanding a sit down with a movie studio.

Universal's $1 billion movies in 2020/2021:
No Time to Die
Fast 9
Jurassic World: Dominion
Minions

 

[bitbydeath]

AMC billions in debt and now pushing away massive movie franchises out of spite.

 

[JordanN]

AMC billions in debt and now pushing away massive movie franchises out of spite.

Can't they just survive off Disney movies?

In fact, Universal is not even in the top 3 of biggest movie distributors.

 

[TaySan]

AMC has way more to lose than Universal does....

 

[SpartanN92]

AMC Theatres Refuses to Play Universal Films in Wake of ‘Trolls: World Tour’

AMC Theatres on Tuesday delivered a blistering message to Universal Pictures, saying the world's largest cinema chain will no longer play any of the studio's films in the wake of comments made by NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell regarding the on-demand success of 'Trolls World Tour.'

www.hollywoodreporter.com

AMC Theaters is acting like a mafia boss demanding a sit down with a movie studio.

Universal's $1 billion movies in 2020/2021:
No Time to Die
Fast 9
Jurassic World: Dominion
Minions

Isn’t No Time To Die a Sony movie? It’s Columbia Tri-Star

 

[ManaByte]

Isn’t No Time To Die a Sony movie? It’s Columbia Tri-Star

Nope not anymore. Sony lost the distribution rights to Universal.

 

[megamerican]

He already gives himself an out in that last paragraph. The moment there is a single cent to be lost, AMC will cave if it's still even around.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

If Dreamworks and Universal are sponsoring things like this...



Then it's hard for me to be upset. I hate this crap sneaking into anything. So excuse me if I don't stand up for them.

If I've got it wrong and they had nothing to do with it, then I might give this issue a second thought. As it is, eh, let them eat themselves.

As an aside, I love the AMC theater near me though. Nice classic style theater with great seats and located in a very "Stranger Things" setting if you will. So I hope they don't screw themselves and have to close locations or something.

 

[Karmic Raze]

Fuck AMC. I hope they go out of business.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Good luck with that.

Studios aren’t going to go back on VOD now, it makes more sense for some movies. All the huge blockbusters got pushed back though. Stuff like 007 or Fast and Furious would make like a billion worldwide at the box office.

 

[BigBooper]

So they are racing even faster towards their death out of jealousy and spite?

 

[SpartanN92]

Nope not anymore. Sony lost the distribution rights to Universal.

Well I stand corrected, I hadn’t heard that. I consider myself an ultra Bond fan, not sure how that flew beneath my radar.

 

[JordanN]

So they are racing even faster towards their death out of jealousy and spite?

See my post.

Unless Disney drops them, how are they dying?

 

[ManaByte]

So they are racing even faster towards their death out of jealousy and spite?

 

[bitbydeath]

Can't they just survive off Disney movies?

In fact, Universal is not even in the top 3 of biggest movie distributors.

They need all the money they can get and can’t afford to be choosey.

 

[JordanN]

They need all the money they can get and can’t afford to be choosey.

But Universal only has 11% of the market share so clearly they can?

 

[Fox Mulder]

But Universal only has 11% of the market share so clearly they can?

universal isn’t going to stream their billion dollar box office blockbusters. AMC would just be fucking themselves out of that money.

 

[Karmic Raze]

universal isn’t going to stream their billion dollar box office blockbusters. AMC would just be fucking themselves out of that money.

Universal is going to make them an offer that they can’t refuse.

 

[bitbydeath]

But Universal only has 11% of the market share so clearly they can?

That 11% might be the bonuses they give out to their execs every year.

 

[Arkam]

I get where AMC is coming from and why they gotta flex. Dumb from a consumer stand point but it makes sense. Same reason game console makers still attached to brick and mortar retailers.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Seems like not showing popular movies when you’re movie theater business is dying might not be wise. I don’t know shit about economics though

 

[Torrent of Pork]

So, you want to force Universal to keep streaming movies directly to the home, likely making more money than they would from the threatre deals themselves.

As somebody who absolutely despises movie theatres, I'm ok with this.

 

[Tesseract]

rekt

 

[jshackles]

 

[Grinchy]

That would be a pretty big deal if our society gets back to a point where people can go to a theater (and want to go to a theater) again.

This one movie's digital release may have worked out well while there's no choice to go to a theater, but it's no guarantee that it'll be more profitable than being able to be in theaters for Universal's entire lineup from here on out.

 

[BigBooper]

See my post.

Unless Disney drops them, how are they dying?

You are acting like cutting off 10% of the market is no big deal. The reason they will die is being proven in home streaming.

 

[JordanN]

You are acting like cutting off 10% of the market is no big deal. The reason they will die is being proven in home streaming.

It's short term gains vs long term patience.

If it was so easy for home streaming to takeover, then why has every other distributor chose to delay their movies instead of just putting them online?

When businesses reopen (which they will eventually) then clearly it's not AMC's loss anymore.

 

[BigBooper]

It's short term gains vs long term patience.

If it was so easy for home streaming to takeover, then why has every other distributor chose to delay their movies instead of just putting them online?

When businesses reopen (which they will eventually) then clearly it's not AMC's loss anymore.

Nobody's claiming it's going to happen immediately.

 

[Descent Into Madness]

It's short term gains vs long term patience.

If it was so easy for home streaming to takeover, then why has every other distributor chose to delay their movies instead of just putting them online?

When businesses reopen (which they will eventually) then clearly it's not AMC's loss anymore.

Because it's an unproven business model. Trolls was a success and AMC is mad at that success because its opening eyes to the possibility of the model.


AMC has been on the verge of bankruptcy. Cutting off 10% of your business out of spite is how you run your business into the ground. Theatres are not in a position to lose business.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

“Let’s make ourselves even less money! Yeah, that will show ‘em.”

 

[Reallink]

I'm not really sure a $20 rental with quarantined parents desperate to shut their kids up necessarily portends the death of theaters. Even ignoring the unprecedentedly unique circumstances, the original made 116 million in theaters over the same span, then presumably went on to do 10's of millions more in VoD and disc rentals. So the sequel did quite a bit less despite having a literal captive audience, and will also likely pull much lower numbers in future rentals and disc sales. All told they're probably going to be looking at 50%+ less revenue on the sequel

 

[JordanN]

Because it's an unproven business model. Trolls was a success and AMC is mad at that success because its opening eyes to the possibility of the model.


AMC has been on the verge of bankruptcy. Cutting off 10% of your business out of spite is how you run your business into the ground. Theatres are not in a position to lose business.

But Universal also losing access to the majority of theaters is suppose to be better?

Again, they still have access to Disney, Sony and Warner Bros movies or basically 50%* of the entire marketshare. It's up to Universal to prove they can have a $1 billion hit via streaming.


*Disney now owns Fox

 

[MaestroMike]

If I were AMC, I'd do the same thing get the hel! outta here with that BS movie theatres barely make any money as-is. most of their money is from food u don't screw over ur partners like that

Edit:. Though I do think movie studios should have the option to stream some of their movies to bring in some income while theatres are shutdown and social distancing is implemented.

 

[ManaByte]

I'm not really sure a $20 rental with quarantined parents desperate to shut their kids up necessarily portends the death of theaters. Even ignoring the unprecedentedly unique circumstances, the original made 116 million in theaters over the same span, then presumably went on to do 10's of millions more in VoD and disc rentals. So the sequel did quite a bit less despite having a literal captive audience, and will also likely pull much lower numbers in future rentals and disc sales. All told they're probably going to be looking at 50%+ less revenue on the sequel

The original made $116 million, but Universal only got about $77M of that due to the theater chain cuts. So in the long run the sequel will make them more and be profitable just from VOD.

 

[Mistake]

Last I heard china has a large stake in AMC, so F em

 

[cryptoadam]

Beggers shouldn't be chosers. Whose going to movies now a days anyways.

Universal just go streaming and rake in the profits. Why do you need the middle man when you can beam directly to people.

 

[Descent Into Madness]

But Universal also losing access to the majority of theaters is suppose to be better?

Again, they still have access to Disney, Sony and Warner Bros movies or basically 50%* of the entire marketshare. It's up to Universal to prove they can have a $1 billion hit via streaming.


*Disney now owns Fox

Universal can survive regardless. Theatres can't. They are in no position to attempt power moves.

Not to mention, the less studios movies they show, the more control they are asserting to those studios. If they only showed say Disney, Disney would be bending AMC over and demanding larger and larger cuts of the profits because they know they hold all the power in the relationship.

This is nothing more than cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[ClanOfNone]

I watch like maybe 1 movie a year in an actual movie theater. I would say that the industry is dying, but we've got billion dollar takes still so I guess not.
Personally, I'd gladly pay a few extra bucks to stream a movie on release day. Dealing with people generally sucks and I'd rather watch in the comfort of my home anyways.
Except for Dune, I wanna see that shit on the biggest screen possible.

 

[Strife In a Teacup]

I'm not really sure a $20 rental with quarantined parents desperate to shut their kids up necessarily portends the death of theaters. Even ignoring the unprecedentedly unique circumstances, the original made 116 million in theaters over the same span, then presumably went on to do 10's of millions more in VoD and disc rentals. So the sequel did quite a bit less despite having a literal captive audience, and will also likely pull much lower numbers in future rentals and disc sales. All told they're probably going to be looking at 50%+ less revenue on the sequel

Just curious since I really don't know, but what about marketing costs for theaters vs just going straight to VoD? Would that have any impact? Does it cost more for marketing in theaters? I mean I know digital marketing can surely get up there in some cases. Though part of that is free marketing done by Amazon/Roku/etc that have been pushing this Trolls movie hard on all their services, not sure if that was paid for as well?

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Amazing lol

I’ve long thought there was a theater bubble. Whenever I go to a movie, unless it is opening day, there are like 10 others in the theater at most. If I do the math in my head it seems so bizarre that theaters can stay open at all.

Real dumb move though. Funny to see a company shoot itself in the foot always.

 

[iconmaster]

Hilarious corporate temper tantrum.

If AMC even outlasts the shutdown, I expect these pronouncements to have approximately zero real-world effects.

 

[Sakura Doritos]

 

[NeoGiffer]

 

[Halo is Back]

Lmao what cry babies. Wahhhh you made money outside our platform so fuck you, you don't get to play with us

 

[jshackles]

This would be like if Sony stopped selling any SEGA games, because Virtua Tennis 4 was released for PS3 and Xbox 360 while PSN was offline in 2011 because of the hack and sold better on Xbox because people could actually play the game.

 

[Weiji]

I get why they would want to muscle their competition on this, but doing it publicly is dumb. Now everyone and their brother is gonna think, “oh I should skip going to universal, they might not have what I want to see.”

And then there’s the brand damage of seeming to be such an asshole so publicly.

Netflix is out there paying hundreds of millions for property rights per piece of media and you guys are trying to muscle while movie studios? Seems like a really bad strategy.

 

[highrider]

Throw your weight around when your company is on life support. Good call!

 

[jshackles]

Now I really want to see Disney release something direct to digital while the theaters are closed, just so we can all witness AMC publicly eat crow.

 

[dorkimoe]

This news was massive when I came across it. But i think they will cave. I am all for VOD, then I can just pirate it. Yes i said pirate it, I am a single person not paying $20 to RENT a movie, when a movie theater ticket in my town is 5 bucks.

 

[cryptoadam]

AMC has no choice to take this move. Studio's are seeing what Trolls did, and that every one is saying Corona Chan isn't going away until a vaccine flys out of our butts.

They have to strong arm the studio's to keep their stupid exclusive window or else their entire business is done.

What if another studio does the same, and then another, and then another. This is just a fear tactic to prevent Disney or WB or Sony from doing the same. But jokes on AMC once we get to June and cinema's are still closed acrosst he world Hollywood isn't going to sit on their ass losing money.