Idris Elba as an African warlord in ‘Beasts of No Nation’.
Netflix
Variety reports that four of the country’s largest theater chains are refusing to perform Beasts of no nation, an independently produced film for which Netflix bought the streaming and theatrical release rights for $12 million last week. Netflix is reportedly planning a “strong Oscar push” for the film, starring Idris Elba. The company plans to make the movie available for streaming, but to be eligible for an Oscar, it must also have some form of theatrical release.
However, the theaters are not interested. AMC, Carmike, Cinemark and Regal are all aware Variety that they won’t show the movie because the chains don’t want to show movies that don’t meet the traditional 90-day delay between a movie’s theatrical release and its availability in homes via disc or streaming.
Instead you quote ‘insiders’, Variety indicates the film will see a much more limited release in a few hundred smaller theaters, including the Alamo Draft House. Draft House CEO Tim League reportedly says he doesn’t mind the idea of showing movies in movie theaters, even though they are available to people at home via streaming. “I think that argument is a bit of a diversion,” he said.
The film’s producer also seems unconcerned about the limited theatrical release, pointing out that distribution through Netflix will allow the film to reach a much larger potential audience than a theatrical release. And Netflix will be doing more of this in the future as well, and both Variety And The protector to mention, Netflix is stepping up its plans to stream first theatrical movies with several titles coming out this year.