The Mouse That Extorted?
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens opens in wide release this coming Friday, December 18th. It was scheduled to open at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood among the several thousand other theaters it will be showing in. But apparently it was only scheduled to be there for one week.
That's because one week later, on Christmas Day, the 8th film from Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight was supposed to open there. QT shot this film in 70MM Cinerama, and planned to open the movie only in those theaters equipped to show it in that mode. One of those is the legendary Cinerama Dome. It's iconic. I stood in line for hours to see the last showing of Lawrence of Arabia there when the theater was about to close for 18 months of renovations. That was 15 years ago.
Now, the Arclight Cinema company has backed out of the contract to show QT's film in the Dome. According to the director himself, in an interview on the Howard Stern program, Disney basically extorted the theater to back out of the deal and keep the Star Wars film running in the dome throughout the holiday season.
So far, Disney has refused to comment. Their total box office take from Star Wars Episode VII will not be diminished if it runs for only one week in the Dome. People are so excited about this movie it is breaking all kinds of records. There was a story today that the pre-sale of tickets in the U.S. for Episode VII is already over the $100 million mark.
Why is Disney doing this? Could this be a case of sour grapes? Prior to Disney and the Weinstein brothers parting of the ways in 2005 or so, every film that QT made, put profits into the coffers of the mouse. But Disney wasn't involved in any of the Weinstein Company's collaborations with Tarantino after Bob and Harvey Weinstein left Miramax to form their current film company. Two of the five biggest grossing films produced by the Weinstein Company were written and directed by QT.
Maybe Howard Stern is right and either Bob Iger or J. J. Abrams will solve this and fix it so Arclight honors their deal with QT and The Hateful Eight will open in the Dome. Maybe not.
That's because one week later, on Christmas Day, the 8th film from Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight was supposed to open there. QT shot this film in 70MM Cinerama, and planned to open the movie only in those theaters equipped to show it in that mode. One of those is the legendary Cinerama Dome. It's iconic. I stood in line for hours to see the last showing of Lawrence of Arabia there when the theater was about to close for 18 months of renovations. That was 15 years ago.
Now, the Arclight Cinema company has backed out of the contract to show QT's film in the Dome. According to the director himself, in an interview on the Howard Stern program, Disney basically extorted the theater to back out of the deal and keep the Star Wars film running in the dome throughout the holiday season.
So far, Disney has refused to comment. Their total box office take from Star Wars Episode VII will not be diminished if it runs for only one week in the Dome. People are so excited about this movie it is breaking all kinds of records. There was a story today that the pre-sale of tickets in the U.S. for Episode VII is already over the $100 million mark.
Why is Disney doing this? Could this be a case of sour grapes? Prior to Disney and the Weinstein brothers parting of the ways in 2005 or so, every film that QT made, put profits into the coffers of the mouse. But Disney wasn't involved in any of the Weinstein Company's collaborations with Tarantino after Bob and Harvey Weinstein left Miramax to form their current film company. Two of the five biggest grossing films produced by the Weinstein Company were written and directed by QT.
Maybe Howard Stern is right and either Bob Iger or J. J. Abrams will solve this and fix it so Arclight honors their deal with QT and The Hateful Eight will open in the Dome. Maybe not.
posted by me at 1:26 PM
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