AMC-Universal-Trolls World Tour Windows Battle

Buried in AMC’s Q1 earnings release today on page 3 was the statement, “While we are in active dialogue with Universal, no movies made by Universal Studios are currently on our docket.” The note comes a little bit more than a month after AMC CEO and President Adam Aron alerted the studio in a public note to Universal…

Not to deflate the rousing round robin of mudslinging between AMC, Cineworld and Universal, but this whole OMG melee between exhibition and studios over PVOD, theatrical-window crunching and hurt feelings is poised to calm down soon. Some industry insiders believe the situation has already eased, and the statements…

Days after Jeff Shell’s statements in the Wall Street Journal spurred AMC boss Adam Aron to embargo the studio’s films, the NBCUniversal CEO acknowledged the company’s commitment to theatrical, but that Premium VOD will still be part of the equation. "The question is when we come out of this (pandemic), what is going…

EXCLUSIVE: Following yesterday’s flurry of dramatic exchanges involving AMC, the National Association of Theatre 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…

The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC) has weighed in on the debate around Universal's decision to release Trolls World Tour digitally during the pandemic. Yesterday, Universal CEO Jeff Shell revealed that the PVOD release, which the studio pivoted to after cinemas were shuttered by coronavirus, had generated close…

2nd Update, 8:05PM: Following the National Association of Theatre Owners’ earlier statement today deflating NBCUniversal’s $95M PVOD victory with Trolls World Tour in the Wall Street Journal, the exhibition organization has issued another public statement tonight after Uni accused them of being in cahoots with AMC…

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…

AMC boss Adam Aron has just fired off a letter to Universal Studios Chairman Donna Langley in response to NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell’s statements in the Wall Street Journal this morning about the $95M PVOD success of Trolls World Tour.  As Aron explains to Langley in the letter (read it below), he initially got it…

Universal’s decision to take DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls World Tour into homes at the 48-hour rental price of $19.99 during exhibition’s COVID-19 shutdown has reportedly racked up an estimated $95M in rental fees in the title’s first 19 days. With VOD terms in the studio’s favor at an estimated 80%, Universal is…

EXCLUSIVE: Actors’ Equity Association has hired the high-profile safety consultant David Michaels, former administrator of OSHA under President Barack Obama, to advise and help the union develop the steps necessary for reopening Broadway and theaters across the country after the COVID-19 shutdown. In an exclusive and…

Universal is still collecting data for its digital rental release of DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls World Tour this past weekend, but it’s believed to be a record weekend and opening-day digital rental. Here are the benchmarks indicating so, even though retailers will provide full dollar amounts in a weekly flash…

With theaters largely closed due to COVID-19 nationwide (except for a handful of drive-ins), there are many things that make sense financially for major studios when it comes to the distribution of their movies right now. It made sense that current theatrical releases such as Bloodshot, The Invisible Man, The Hunt, Onw…