David Ellison’s Paramount/Skydance has been wooing exhibitors lately as the heads of two of them – AMC and Regal – have penned glowing endorsements in the media of the company’s proposed $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery takeover.
Now, Bloomberg reports that Paramount has offered three-year agreements to both those exhibitors. Under the agreements, the studio will guarantee 30 movies a year in theaters for three years straight – 90 films overall.
In addition, the films would play exclusively on the big screen for at least 45 days and would not be available on SVOD services for at least 90 days.
The agreements are meant to put, in writing, a guarantee of Ellison’s repeated claims to make more movies should the deal go through. The 30 films-a-year figure has been floated around for a while including at CinemaCon earlier this year, but this report makes it sound like the first time for exhibitors it is being guaranteed in writing – and thus has consequences.
The obvious questions arise as to what the penalties are if Paramount fails to meet the commitments and what qualifies as a theatrical release under this deal (ie. how wide, how well marketed, etc.).
No major studio in the modern era of filmmaking has been able to achieve such a slate of films, which leads many to question if it’s possible. Ellison is trying though and has been greenlighting projects at a rapid pace with more “Transformers,” “Star Trek,” “World War Z,” “G.I. Joe,” “Call of Duty,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and more in the works.
