Star Wars: The Last Jedi is among the most eagerly awaited films of the year, and it is bound to meet huge success at the box office. Despite the prospects of the film being profitable, there is at least one theatre in a small Iowa town which has denied screening the film due to various regulations demanded by Disney.
“The biggest reason that I’m not going to show it is the four-week minimum play time,” Elkader Cinema owner Lee Akin informed Des Moines Register. “My little town cannot afford to play any movie for that long of a time.”
The theatre in question is a single screen theatre which is normally more than enough to cater to the demands of the community of about 1,200 citizens. The theatre normally runs one show in the evening on weekdays and during the afternoon on the weekends.
The latest Star Wars chapter shows that the business of displaying films is far more complex than mere screening a film several times throughout the day and repeating the same every day. Disney is asking for 65% of the ticket sales revenue from theaters which is higher than the 64 percent they demanded for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star WarsStory, besides asking for a guarantee from the theatre about running the film for four weeks in its largest auditorium. Multiplexes with a dozen screens can handle this easily, but, it is not that practical for a small theatre.
“I can’t get the entire town in my auditorium in one week’s time let alone four,” Akin explained.
If a theatre accepted the terms and then breached the terms of the agreement, then they would have to pay the penalty by shelling out over 70 percent of their earnings to Disney instead of the 65 percent.
A lot of people may raise eyebrows about such conditions, but, these are not vastly different from what most other studios ask for. Theaters, make very little profit from ticket sales and make higher returns when the film runs for a longer duration. They also make most of their money by the profits from concession stands.
The Last Jedi will release on December 15th.
