The American studio Universal at war against theaters?

In New York, on April 29, 2020, the closed doors of an AMC movie theater, the American leader in movie theaters. © REUTERS / Brendan McDermid

Text by: Elisabeth Lequeret Follow

United States. As world cinema is shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, the studios are trying to get out of the game. Thus, the legendary American studio Universal has released its cartoon "Trolls 2" directly online , in streaming. Triggering the fury of AMC, the American leader in cinemas.

Publicity

Read more

It is a figure which started the war: 95 million dollars, that is the impressive revenue collected by the Universal studio, thanks to the putting on line of its cartoon The Trolls 2 on the platforms of streaming.

Three weeks ago, the decision to broadcast the film directly on the Internet seemed logical, given the cinemas' closure. But now this colossal figure is causing a wind of panic on cinemas. Especially since the boss of Universal, fortified by this unexpected success, has just announced that his studios will now release their films "  in both formats  ", both in theaters and on video on demand platforms ( VoD), even after the health crisis.

► Also read: Kotimi Guira (Vues d'Afrique): “4 elements for a successful digital festival”

AMC, the largest chain of movie theaters in North America, took these words as a declaration of war. From now on, it "  will no longer screen any Universal film in its cinemas in the United States, Europe and the Middle East  ".

In addition to The Trolls 2 , many films have been released directly to the Internet, due to movie theater closings in many countries. This will be the case for Scooby! , Warner, next month, as well as Artemis Fowl who will go directly to the Disney + platform

Without forgetting a new penknife in the contract which implicitly binds cinemas and film producers: the Academy of Oscars has just changed its rules: films broadcast on the Internet may exceptionally qualify this year to receive the prestigious statuettes.

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Subscribe

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Cinema
  • Culture
  • United States

On the same subject

Views of Africa: the “exceptional” assessment of the digital edition of African cinema

Indian actor Irrfan Khan, known for his role in "Slumdog Millionaire", dies

Interview

“Congo in Conversation” by Finbarr O'Reilly, winner of the Carmignac Prize