Cliff Booth’s bad behavior has really caught up with him. Already banned from backlots across Hollywood for allegedly killing his wife and throwing Bruce Lee into the side of a car, Booth went and got himself kicked out of nearly 300 movie theaters around the world last week. After hatching a scheme with Netflix and AMC to slot into Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew‘s release date, the upcoming Booth-focused movie, The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth, nabbed the streamer’s first-ever exclusive IMAX run, a limited engagement ahead of the film’s December 23 Netflix premiere. AMC, which negotiated privately with Netflix, as they have a prior relationship releasing things like KPop Demon Hunters and Stranger Things in outmoded movie theaters, will screen the movie in its IMAX auditoriums. But the country’s second and third most popular theater chains, Cinemark and Regal, balked at letting the wife-killing Hollywood stuntman in their theaters. Namely because they think it sets a bad precedent to let the wolf in the henhouse.
Cinemark won’t be playing the film because, as its CEO Sean Gamble said during his quarterly earnings call, “it’s not aligned with the greatest interest of our theaters.” According to Gamble, the chain books all its films on “a case-by-case situation,” and “the Cliff Booth situation is an interesting one.” When analyzed through the “long-term lens and how certain precedents” affect the “longer-term industry dynamics,” Cinemark’s brain trust believes the Cliff Booth release model isn’t “constructive for the broader theatrical ecosystem.”
Turning his attention to The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, “a huge movie that’s going to be opening immediately prior” and released by Lionsgate, “one of our major studio partners,” Gamble hints that there’s a little payback against Netflix, which spent the last 15 years trying to put movie theaters out of business. So why would Cinemark do Netflix a favor? “The buzz on [Hunger Games] pre-sales are through the roof,” Gamble continues. “So our intention is to continue to play that in its second week, as we will in its first week on our screens.”
In a statement to Deadline, Regal offered similar reasoning for giving Booth the boot. “Shortened theatrical windows have a direct impact on those decisions, as they limit the opportunity for audiences to experience films on the big screen,” the statement reads. “We will continue to prioritize releases that recognize the value of theatrical exclusivity, including The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, which will have our full support in IMAX.
With that in mind, Gamble is happy to work with other streamers, particularly with Amazon MGM and Apple, which have been “ramping” up theatrical distribution. And the Netflix situation could change as the streamer takes a keener interest in theatrical releases, with its Oscar play La Bola Negra opening and expanding. Next year, Netflix has announced February’s Narnia release with a 50-day release window, and next December’s Charlie Vs. The Chocolate Factory will receive a 47-day window.
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