Universal has gotten themselves in some hot water. After announcing that they plan on bringing some new releases to both theatres and premium VOD, theatre chains are speaking out and taking action.
AMC had announced that they will not be playing any Universal films after the announcement that was made by NBC Universal's CEO Jeff Shell. Now, Cineworld (who owns Regal Entertainment) is joining AMC for their fight.
In a statement, Cineworld said, "Universal's move is completely inappropriate and certainly has nothing to do with good faith business practice, partnership and transparency." They went on to say, "Cineworld's policy with respect to the window is clear, well known in the industry and is part of our commercial deal with our movie suppliers. We invest heavily in our cinemas across the globe and this allows the movie studios to provide customers all around the world to watch the movies in the best experience. There is no argument that that big screen is the best way to watch a movie. Universal unilaterally chose to break our understanding and did so at the height of the [health] crisis when our business is closed, more than 35,000 employees are at home and when we do not yet have a clear date for the reopening of our cinemas."
Cineworld did also state that they are open to showing any movies as long as the rules were followed and not changed due to one side's decision.
A few films that could be affected by this would be "F9", "Jurassic World: Dominion", "Sing 2", and "Minions: The Rise of Gru".
