Imax CEO Wades Into ‘Cliff Booth’ Debate — “Frankly, I Don’t Understand”

Imax chief executive Rich Gelfond criticised Regal and Cinemark for declining to show Netflix’s The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth during its two-week Imax run, saying the chains could have screened it alongside The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The dispute centres on the film’s shortened theatrical window, and highlights continuing tensions between cinema chains and Netflix over how long films should play exclusively in theatres.

The film, Quentin Tarantino’s follow-up to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, begins a 27-day exclusive theatrical window on 29 November at Imax and independent cinemas; it can also be shown in standard format by those venues. AMC will screen it, while Regal and Cinemark plan to use their Imax screens for Hunger Games, which opens the previous weekend. Gelfond said Hunger Games pre-sales were strong and pointed to the successful cinema release of Netflix’s Kpop Demon Hunters Singalong as evidence that films can attract audiences after streaming.