Cineplex says that it’s willing to play Netflix Originals in theatres if the streaming company agrees to a certain amount of exclusivity.
“We are very happy to play movies as long as our partners follow the same rules as our other partners,” Ellis Jacob, Cineplex’s chief executive officer told BNN Bloomberg. The statement indicates that Cineplex would be “very happy” to play Netflix Originals, but that the company also wants them to be exclusive to Cineplex before eventually hitting the streaming platform.
These comments go hand-in-hand with Netflix’s new Original The Irishman. The Martin Scorsese film has a three-week cinematic release window before initially launching on Netflix. However, typical films have a three-month window.
Though there’s nothing to do about The Irishman — it’s already playing at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto — Cineplex remains in talks with Netflix about future releases.
This statement comes out at the same time as the launch of Disney+, the House of Mouse’s new streaming service.
New Disney films like Frozen 2, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Black Widow will initially play in theatres for several months before eventually making their way to Disney+.
“Our store – [where] we have over 8,500 movies — now becomes one of those choices. It’s basically not a subscription model, it’s a pay-as-you-play model. So it’s a little bit different,” he told Bloomberg.
Additionally, he mentions, that streaming is sort of like VCRs and VHS tapes.
“When VCRs and all of the VHS (tapes), and then we went from one different [format] to the other, cable and things like that… To me, streaming is just another delivery mechanism.”
The Irishman is currently only playing at TIFF Bell Lightbox until November 27th when it’ll be available on Netflix.
Source: BNN Bloomberg
