Netflix and US movie theater chain Cinemark have teamed up to bring Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead to cinemas across the US one week before the movie comes to Netflix. If this is successful, it could lead to more deals of this nature in the future, according to Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi.
“We’re gonna see, how does it do in that week? How does it do the week that it goes into Netflix? We’re going to learn a lot,” Zoradi said during the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit, according to Deadline.
Zoradi said he’s already feeling confident that there will be “several” additional releases from Netflix coming to theaters down the track.
“We don’t believe it’s going to be a large quantity, but a limited number of their high-profile movies where they want to spend the marketing expenditure, they want theatrical exhibition and what comes along with that, we think that there will be future movies to come,” Zoradi explained. “Those might be 14 days, they might be 21 days. I would characterize it as a very progressive and positive relationship with Netflix.”
Should the Army of the Dead deal work for Cinemark, it could lead the theater chain into discussions with other streaming services, Zoradi said.
“As studios make decisions to take things to their own unique platform, perhaps we’re going to find a way to get some things from the streaming services that we otherwise would not have gotten and give them an important theatrical window,” he said.
Cinemark has booked Army of the Dead for 200 of its locations. The movie will also be available to watch at smaller theater chains such as Alamo Drafthouse, Harkins, Cinepolis, and iPic. AMC and Regal, two massive chains in the US, won’t have Army of the Dead.
Army of the Dead is out now in US theaters at Cinemark and it will release on Netflix a week later, beginning May 21. The first 15 minutes of the movie are now online, while you can check out a roundup of review scores for Army of the Dead to find out if you might be interested.
Army of the Dead stars Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Tig Notaro.
As another example of the shifting landscape for movies, Disney. just announced that the Ryan Reynolds movie Free Guy and Shang-Chi will have a 45-day theatrical window.
