Disney is brewing up a storm with their Tim Burton adapted Alice in Wonderland.
While UK cinema chains Vue and Cineworld have worked out a deal with Disney, who were lobbying for a reduction in the time delay between the cinema release of their latest film and the home entertainment release, Odeon today made good on their word and will boycott the film.
We’ve now seen from The L.A. Times (via FilmJunk) that US cinema chain AMC are also standing up to Disney’s plan, and threatening to boycott the cinema release of Alice. With just two weeks to go there’s not a lot of room to negotiate and with 4,500 screens in their hands Disney will need to work hard to sign a deal similar to that with Vue and Cineworld.
I saw (and photographed) an Alice Blu-ray/DVD advertising board last week and I’m not the only one to see these in the UK, Disney are really pushing the boundaries with this advertising for a film not out yet in cinemas. This is clearly a test case, but in a nice ironic twist the Odeon Leicester Square are hosting the Royal Premiere this week in a cinema that won’t be showing the film on release.
They have stood up to Disney and others may follow suit, but Disney can be clearly be persuasive force to safeguard their investment.
