Well this is a strange turn of events. It appears the UK theatre chain Odeon has said no thank you to Rambo and will not be showing the film in theaters as expected. We get wind of this story thanks to the professionals at Variety:
Odeon, the U.K.’s biggest exhib chain, will not show Sony’s new release “Rambo” at its theaters this weekend, citing undisclosed “commercial reasons.” Odeon is tight-lipped on the decision not to play the franchise sequel. “Owing to commercial reasons, Odeon has made the decision not to screen the film ‘Rambo’ across its cinemas in the U.K.,” said a statement. “As the U.K.’s largest cinema chain, Odeon offers its guests a wide range of film genres to appeal to many different audiences. As such the decision not to screen ‘Rambo’ will free up screens to show alternative popular new films such as ‘Jumper,’ ‘Be Kind Rewind’ and ‘Juno’.”
An exhib source told Variety that Odeon’s decision to pull “Rambo” must be “over a disagreement over the terms. But to us, the film rentals rate seems reasonable enough for a release such as ‘Rambo.’ ”
I am not sure what the theatre situation is like in the UK, but I sincerely hope that this disagreement will not hinder people from seeing Rambo. With luck, enough competitive chains will be able to pick up the slack, and everyone who wants to see this orgy of glorious violence will be able to do so. To my friends in the UK – Will this move by Odeon hurt people’s chances to see this film on a small or large scale?
After talking to some theatre management it’s apparent that they make more money selling concessions than they do from showing the movie itself. This can only go on for so long before the theaters start to get pissed. I think this move was intentional, inevitable and I would guess that we may start to see more of the same; followed by bargaining agreements.
Odeon is remaining hush, hush on the issue, but the only reason they would pull a stunt like this (imho) is to fight for a greater revenue share of the films shown in their theatre chain. Sadly it will be the movie fans that are inconvenience most; and it is my hope that this issue gets resolved before it gets worse.
