Home Entertainment New Netflix movie boycotted by major cinema chains

New Netflix movie boycotted by major cinema chains

3 min read
2

elba_beasts

Netflix’s upcoming movie Beasts of No Nation is set to incur the wrath of cinema chains across America for not following a 90 day delay when it is released later this year according to Variety. The Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) directed drama is set to launch in cinemas the same day as the movie streaming site which is upsetting the country’s ‘big 4’ exhibitors – those being AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Carmike. Usually when movies come out at the cinema there is a standard 90 day delay that forces allows paying punters to fill seats. We have seen this happen already with the sequel to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon receiving the same treatment from sulky distributors. Quite frankly I think we should be allowed the choice of watching a movie at the cinema at the same time as viewing at home and base my choice on the TYPE of film showing.

Beasts of No Nation was picked up by Netflix for a cool $12 million and is based on the Nigerian novel by Uzodinma Iweala and stars Idris Elba as a warlord that recruits child soldiers. Yeah, so something light… Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer, said of the film:

“Beasts of No Nation is a powerful film that unfolds beautifully in the hands of director Cary Fukunaga with Idris Elba delivering a career-defining performance. We are so proud to bring a film of this caliber exclusively to Netflix members around the world at the same time as it appears in select theaters.”

Well he isn’t the only one that has no issue with the timing of the release. Tim League, CEO and founder of The Alamo Drafthouse, an independent chain of some 19 cinemas across three states, said that they had no issue with releasing the rather awesome science fiction movie Snowpiercer at the same time and said they were not in competition with the internet giant:

“I don’t look at myself as a competitor to Netflix. I think that argument is a little bit of a red herring. I watch a lot of movies at home, but there comes a time where I want to get out of the house. I look at cinemas as one of those options that compete with restaurants or baseball games or all of those things I can’t do in my living room.”

Damn straight. It’s not like cinemas are not making money because of shows like Game of Thrones or Vikings. There is a time and place for everything and whiny distributors need to quieten down! With Netflix’s reach of some 50 million people it’s no wonder people like Daniela Taplin Lundberg, co-founder of Red crown Productions who made the movie, are happy with the situation:

“Making this film has been one of the most profound professional experiences of our careers. Everyone, from Cary to our production assistants, sacrificed so much to make this film authentically in West Africa, where Uzo’s story was set. To know that this harrowing and beautiful movie is going to reach the more than 50 million people within Netflix’s reach is beyond our wildest dreams. The Netflix team is bold and has the same pioneering spirit about distribution that I like to think we had about making the film in the jungles of Ghana. We could not be happier about this partnership.”

I for one would go see this at the cinema, if they let me, as I find this sort of movie more engrossing on the big screen. What about you?

Last Updated: March 4, 2015

2 Comments

  1. That director/lead actor combo… Yes please!

    Reply

  2. Lourens Corleone

    March 5, 2015 at 09:26

    Not at all. Netflix is so much better.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Netflix Thickens the MOTU Plot with Another Show

So the plot thickens… It would seem that Netflix has another MOTU show in the works that r…