If you’re hoping to catch Netflix’s The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth in premium large-format grandeur, you might need to adjust your holiday theatrical plans. According to a report from IndieWire, David Fincher’s upcoming sequel won’t be playing on Regal or Cinemark IMAX screens when it hits the holiday release window.
A New Era for Tarantino’s Coolest Stuntman
Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Fincher, the film jumps eight years after the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Now set in 1977, the story finds Brad Pitt’s Oscar-winning stuntman working as a Los Angeles bartender and revival cinema projectionist who moonlights as an off-the-books “fixer” for Tinseltown’s elite. When mysterious mobsters start wreaking havoc across the city, Cliff gets dragged into a gritty, sprawling crime story where Hollywood’s sun-drenched fairytale collides head-on with stylish violence.
Where You Can (and Can’t) See It
Despite the star power and director pedigree, both Regal and Cinemark have declined to screen the movie as part of its IMAX-exclusive theatrical run starting November 25. Instead, the film will rely on AMC’s IMAX locations alongside a selection of smaller regional circuits. That brings its global screen count to roughly 550, with AMC holding the vast majority of domestic real estate, operating around 200 screens compared to Regal’s 100 and Cinemark’s 20.
Blockbusters Over Auteurs at the Box Office
With Fincher’s crime caper vacating those locations, multiplexes are expected to keep The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping locked into their premium format auditoriums for a second straight weekend.
Typically, IMAX maintains strict control over what plays on its proprietary screens, leaving exhibition chains with little say in programming. However, because IMAX finalized this arrangement late in the booking schedule, the company granted exhibitor partners an opt-out clause if they felt the theatrical return wouldn’t justify giving up prime holiday showtimes. While Quentin Tarantino’s loyal audience will always turn out, theater chains recognize that a mainstream Hunger Games prequel offers a far higher box-office ceiling than a somewhat niche, auteur-led sequel. At the end of the day, exhibition is a business driven by ticket sales, and major chains are placing their bets on guaranteed blockbusters.
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