Studios Reach Deal With Cinemark on Theatrical Windows

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Several major Hollywood studios have signed deals with Plano, Texas-based Cinemark Holdings Inc. to shorten theatrical release windows.

Hollywood-based Paramount Pictures, Culver City-based Sony Pictures Entertainment, Burbank-based Warner Bros. Pictures Group and Walt Disney Co. each reached agreements with Cinemark, the theater company announced on May 7. 

Terms of the deals were not disclosed and are unique to each studio, Cinemark said.

The deals build on an agreement that Cinemark made with Universal City-based Universal Filmed Entertainment Group in November, which shortened the release window to five weekends, or 31 days, for movies that gross more than $50 million domestically the weekend they open. After this, films are released for at-home viewing on online rental platforms.

The window shortens to 17 days for films that gross less than $50 million domestically in the first weekend they open.

“In our ongoing efforts to maximize attendance and box office during the pandemic and beyond, our goal is to provide the widest range of content with terms that are in the best long-term interests of Cinemark, our studio partners and moviegoers,” Cinemark Chief Executive Mark Zoradi said in a statement.

Cinemark revenue for the first quarter fell nearly 80% to $114.4 million in 2021 from $543.6 million in the same period a year earlier. The company’s quarterly loss was $208.2 million, a spike of 249% from the previous year’s loss of $59.6 million in the same period.

Cinemark operates 12 theaters in the the Los Angeles area and 5,872 nationwide as of March 31.

Movie theaters in Los Angeles County reopened in mid-March and have been allowed to increase capacity limits as the county moved into the yellow tier of the state’s reopening plan. Movie theaters can now operate at 50% capacity.

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