Odeon Says No To Rambo

The UK's largest cinema chain, Odeon, is apparently refusing to screen this weekend's major new release Rambo. Variety quotes the chain as stating:-

“Owing to commercial reasons, Odeon has made the decision not to screen the film ‘Rambo’ across its cinemas in the U.K.,”[...] “As the U.K.’s largest cinema chain, Odeon offers its guests a wide range of film genres to appeal to many different audiences. As such the decision not to screen ‘Rambo’ will free up screens to show alternative popular new films such as ‘Jumper,’ ‘Be Kind Rewind’ and ‘Juno’.”

Whilst other theatre chains will still be showing the film, this move will no doubt hurt Rambo's commercial prospects in the UK. It is assumed the argument is over the split of revenues between the cinema and distributor, but there is nothing to suggest this is being handled differently to other movies. In any event cinema's have long made their money from concession stands rather than ticket sales, as this recent article shows .

Source: Variety