Five days before its release, it is still unclear whether the blockbuster ‘Wonder Woman: 1984’ will be shown at the two largest cinema chains in the Netherlands. Presales for the film have still not started on Pathé’s website. Vue says in a short response that the talks with distributor Warner Bros. still walking.
Both companies announced earlier this week that they would not be showing the film on Wednesday, December 16. According to the cinemas, distributor Warner quite abruptly and unilaterally changed the business conditions for the screening of the film. Both Pathé and Vue said they hope to screen the film from December 17, the start of the new week of play. But this does not seem to be clear at the moment.
Warner himself said he did not want to comment on the matter in substance. “We will release the film on December 16,” said a spokesman. He cannot say in which rooms the film will be shown. Pathé and Vue own most of the commercial cinemas in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands would be one of the first countries where Wonder Woman: 1984 can be seen. The cinemas initially seemed very happy with the news that the action movie with actress Gal Gadot was released in December. Many major Hollywood titles have been postponed until well into 2021 due to corona.
According to the two cinema chains, the difficult conversations around Wonder Woman: 1984 are separate from the discussion about Warner’s plan to release major films in cinemas and on their streaming platform HBO Max in 2021. This decision has caused great anger among at least American cinema operators and many filmmakers.
According to Warner Bros. The Netherlands will also see all of the studio’s major films in cinemas in 2021. HBO Max is currently not offered in the Netherlands. But the boss of HBO Max reported last week that the service will be rolled out in Europe in the course of 2021.
