- Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWF) shares have slipped 2.7% in midday London trading as the company - owner of No. 2 U.S. movie-theater chain Regal - set up its own reopening plans and came to a new release-window arrangement with Warner Bros. (T -0.1%).
- The Regal theaters will open for the first time in six months in a phased process, with a limited number of venues opening in time for Warner's Godzilla Vs. Kong on April 2. It will open more widely two weeks later, in time for Mortal Kombat, from Warner's New Line Cinema.
- Meanwhile it's come to terms with WarnerMedia and its plans to show 2021 films on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters. In the U.S., Cineworld will show Warner's 2021 releases in theaters even as they hit online - then starting in 2022, Warner films will have a 45-day theatrical window in Regal theaters.
- In the UK - Cineworld's second-largest market - the two have agreed to an exclusive theatrical window of 31 days before premium video on demand, and an extended 45 days for films that open to an agreed box-office threshold.
- With capacity limits rising to 50% or more in most U.S. states, Cineworld will be able to operate profitably, says CEO Mooky Greidinger.
- Yesterday, CFRA weighed the impact on cinema chains of shorter theatrical release windows the firm says are here to say.