Regal’s Parent Company Calls Universal’s VOD Strategy “Completely Inappropriate”

After weeks of Universal touting the success of its straight-to-VOD strategy for “Trolls World Tour” (with the studio claiming that a theatrical release will come eventually), it appears that the cinema chains are fed up. Earlier, we saw AMC effectively ban all Universal projects from its theaters due to the studio’s release strategy, and now, we have Cineworld (the owners of Regal Cinemas, the second-largest theater chain) making a strong stand, as well.

READ MORE: ‘Trolls World Tour’ Drives A Wedge Between Universal & Cinemas, With AMC Banning Studio’s Films

In a statement, Cineworld claimed that Universal broke its theatrical window agreement with cinemas by releasing “Trolls World Tour” on VOD instead of in theaters, as was originally planned. And if Universal, or any other studio, does that again, those films will be banned from the company’s cinemas.

“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,” said the statement. “There is no argument that the big screen is the best way to watch a movie.”

It continued, “Universal unilaterally chose to break our understanding and did so at the height of the Covid-19 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. Universal’s move is completely inappropriate and certainly has nothing to do with good faith business practice, partnership and transparency.”

“Today we make it clear again that we will not be showing movies that fail to respect the windows as it does not make any economic sense for us,” the statement added. “We have full confidence in the industry’s current business model.”

READ MORE: Theater Owners Are Excited About ‘Tenet’ & Expect “Tremendous Word-Of-Mouth” After The July Release

In addition to the statement about Universal, Cineworld also released the comments made by CEO Mooky Greidinger in a conversation with Comcast (Universal’s parent company) CEO Brian Roberts:

“Nice words from your team are worthless if we cannot trust you as a partner. The message that the media has portrayed is: ‘Hollywood breaks the window’ – well, this is not true! All our partners called us in a timely manner and told us that in the current situation they want to shorten window for movies that were already released as cinemas are closing, most importantly, they all reassured us that there will be no change to their window policy once the cinema business returned. Unfortunately I missed similar message in Universal’s announcement… not only did Universal provide no commitment for the future window – but Universal was the only studio that tried to take advantage of the current crisis and provide a ‘day-and-date’ release of a movie that was not yet released.”

READ MORE: ‘Trolls 2’ Reportedly Earned More Revenue In 3 Weeks On VOD Than Original Made In 5 Months In Domestic Theaters

So, much like the AMC statement that was made last night, it’s unclear what Cineworld plans on doing once cinemas reopen (most likely in July). AMC has a much more stringent “No Universal” rule right now and Cineworld is clearly upset with the studio, as well. Of course, Universal did offer an explanation, if not an apology regarding the matter. But again, this is clearly a situation that will continue to develop.