Universal has responded to AMC boss Adam Aron’s note tonight to Universal Studios Chairman Donna Langley in which he told the studio that the chain won’t be playing their titles at their global venues. Essentially Uni says they “absolutely believe in the theatrical experience and made no statement to the contrary.”
But…
“As we stated earlier, going forward, we expect to release future films directly to theatres, as well as on PVOD when that distribution outlet makes sense,” added the studio sticking to Shell’s plan to break Hollywood business tradition. Universal ended their note expressing that they’re “disappointed by this seemingly coordinated attempt from AMC and NATO to confuse our position and our actions.” You can read the rest of Uni’s statement below.
Aron took umbrage with NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell’s statements in the Wall Street Journal this morning in which he told the paper “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.”
Now while some may say that Aron may have overreacted here over Shell’s statements, that maybe perhaps the exhibition boss misconstrued them or took them out of context, the NBCUni executive is known as a longstanding champion of squeezing the theatrical window, and getting movies into homes sooner. Shell is a cable guy, who came to Universal’s film division from Comcast in 2015. The thought by exhibition was that Trolls World Tour was a one-off exception at a time when they were all shut down, but they’re threatened by windows collapsing once COVID-19 restrictions lift, and how that might hurt their end of the business. Already, surveys such as Edward Norton’s EDO have indicated that they’ll be slow to go back post COVID — why do theaters need competition from studios in releasing movies?
One exhibition insider said today in response to the AMC mudslinging “This is war — I haven’t seen it this bad since Disney hiked rental terms up before they started releasing the Avengers movies.”
And it’s truly a game of chicken here with the majors: AMC is drawing a line as the exhibition (though financially strapped) leader, and it will be interesting to see who lines up behind them. Exhibitors are upset with how Universal has handled the situation with Trolls World Tour: Just as they were down in their knees, forced to close around the globe due to local safety ordinances due to COVID-19, Uni went ahead and decided to put Trolls World Tour into homes, a franchise film that could have potentially brought circuits dough if it was rescheduled like the studio’s other movies, i.e. F9 and the next Minions movies. Some exhibition sources are ticked off because they say the studio never informed them ahead of time: They just did it, and it was at an awful time. This is why we haven’t seen any exhibitor stonethrowing at Warners for taking Scoob! into homes instead of theaters, Artemis Fowl to Disney+, STX selling My Spy to Amazon and Paramount/MRC selling Lovebirds to Netflix, etc.
We’ve heard behind the scenes that Cineworld has been quite irate with Uni’s actions here as well. Cinemark is deflecting all questions on this fight to NATO, who earlier today expressed how irate they were by NBCUniversal’s victory lap over Trolls World Tour, in which the WSJ reported that the pic in its first 19 days on PVOD made $95M.
Exhibitors are in very precarious, sensitive position now. They’re trying to get stimulus packages. They can’t open as states like Georgia and Texas re-open because there’s no product coming from studios until arguably late July with Warner Bros.’ Tenet and Disney’s Mulan. Theaters have to contend with safety restrictions, capacity limits when they come back and hope that theaters give them movies.
Here’s Universal’s response to AMC’s letter tonight:
“Our goal in releasing Trolls: World Tour on PVOD was to deliver entertainment to people who are sheltering at home, while movie theatres and other forms of outside entertainment are unavailable. Based on the enthusiastic response to the film, we believe we made the right move. In fact, given the choice of not releasing Trolls: World Tour, which would not only have prevented consumers from experiencing the movie but also negatively impacted our partners and employees, the decision was clear. Our desire has always been to efficiently deliver entertainment to as wide an audience as possible. We absolutely believe in the theatrical experience and have made no statement to the contrary. As we stated earlier, going forward, we expect to release future films directly to theatres, as well as on PVOD when that distribution outlet makes sense. We look forward to having additional private conversations with our exhibition partners but are disappointed by this seemingly coordinated attempt from AMC and NATO to confuse our position and our actions.”
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