I almost forgot to mention the recent story that Night at the Museum was dropped by several cinema chains in the UK because of the timing of the DVD release.
Film studio Fox told industry publication Screen Daily that the short window between cinema and DVD release had led Odeon and Vue to pull the film.
Both chains said the film was no longer showing but refused to say why.
According to Fox, cinemas said the 13-week gap between Night at the Museum’s big and small screen debuts was too short.
Fox executive vice-president Christian Grass told Screen Daily: “I feel this is a real tempest in a teacup in terms of exhibitor-distributor relations.
“But the real loser is the consumer. The exhibitors are removing the customer choice to see a crowd-pleasing movie on the big screen.
“This is a movie that played well during the holiday period and we think it only fair to be able to release the DVD at Easter.”
A spokeswoman for Odeon told the BBC News website: “As of today, the film is no longer showing.” But neither Odeon nor Vue would comment further.
The release between the cinema and DVD release has been shrinking and is now an on-going battleground. The reason is that studios make more money from the DVD release, in fact, a lot of the time the cinema release actually loses them money, it just acts as a huge marketing campaign. Generally, cinemas and studios have not had an issue and it has been retailers and rental companies that have been applying pressure and feeling the squeeze.
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