In April, Everything everywhere at once starring Michelle Yeoh was released in cinemas across the country. The film hit streaming services in May and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in July. On October 10, Vancouver’s independent Rio Theater was able to book the film for the first time.
Owner Corinne Lea says these waiting times are getting longer.
Theaters like hers used to get movies like this within two or three weeks of their initial release, she says.
“It’s been six months to a year now,” she told CBC News.
“It’s often streamed online. You can see it on the plane, you can see it anywhere except in our theater.”
Lea is among independent theater owners across the country who say they are last in line to acquire films. They say distributors are telling them to wait until bigger chains — mainly Cineplex Entertainment — are done with films, which indie exhibitors say is taking longer than ever and hurting their business.
“It’s quite often the case that we’re not allowed to play a movie while that movie has already been made available to rent online,” said Wendy Huot, who owns the Screening Room in downtown Kingston, Ontario.
Rachel Fox, who handles bookings for the Rio, says she’s been told by distributors that she can’t book a film if there’s a cineplex on somewhere in Vancouver.
She says she asked about the film elvis after it became available for streaming Yearn and was told no. She says the theater still can’t book Top Gun: Maverickwhich was released in May.
“Every Monday we have to send a distributor a sort of embarrassed email asking if a film has cleared the Cineplex, which means if box office earnings over the weekend were low enough for something else to pull it out of the Game bumps,” Fox said.
She says the theater will also roll out films when Cineplex takes an interest, often around Oscar season.
The financial pressures of the pandemic may have marked a shift in the way Cineplex approaches theatrical release, says Joseph Clark, an assistant professor of film at Simon Fraser University.
Independent cinemas “always had to wait for the big chain Cineplex to finish big studio releases. But now they have to do that with pretty big, hit festival films and whatnot, which have always been distributed by independent distributors,” Clark said.
Cineplex, in a recent release, said it has focused on “partnerings with non-traditional studios” and is executing more “international products” — the types of films Clark says are traditionally played in independent theaters.
Cineplex also said its box office earnings in September were 52 percent of the same month’s earnings in 2019.
In Canada, Hollywood movies are usually distributed by their studio – Warner Bros. manufactured and managed elvisfor example – while independent films often go to Canada-based distributors.
Some of these distributors, including Warner, Toronto-based Mongrel Media, and Elevation Pictures — who take care of them Everything everywhere at once in Canada – declined to comment or did not respond to interview requests.
Cineplex declined an interview request. In a statement, a spokesman said: “Ultimately, where they play their films is up to the film distributors.”
According to a 2021 investor report, the company had 75 percent of box office market share in 2019, followed by Landmark Cinemas at 12 percent and Quebec chain Cinémas Guzzo at 2 percent. All other theaters together came to 11 percent.
Landmark CEO Bill Walker said in an email that his company does not place restrictions on where distributors play their films.
An executive at a Canadian distributor is not aware of any pressure from Cineplex to stop films from being shown in other theaters.
“There has never been — at least that I’ve seen — anything that was Cineplex or anyone else trying to capitalize on their space in the market,” said John Bain, director of acquisitions and distribution at LevelFILM.
“Hey, but we live in the real world and they have 75 percent of the cinemas in Canada and you have to take that into account when making decisions.”
According to Bain, there are many reasons – proximity to other theaters, cost to the distributor – why a film might only run in one theater in a given city. He acknowledges that the ever shorter turnarounds between a film’s theatrical release and streaming release are increasing the challenges for independent cinemas.
Independent cinemas across Canada are reporting lower-than-expected admissions, even as movie lovers are flocking back to check out the latest releases. Smaller cinemas are blaming big chains for forcing distributors to limit their selection — and encroaching on niche art-house films.
“The economics of independent film is a little harder to monetize these days,” Bain said.
He says he’s concerned about the health of independent cinemas in the country.
“There’s a lot less than there used to be. They really support independent film and feature films,” he said. “It’s important to me that they’re healthy, but ultimately everyone involved makes decisions that maximize their bottom line, including distributors and theatres.”
The Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors, a coalition of 79 independent theaters including the Rio, complained about everything this to the competition office in March 2020, claiming that Cineplex had too dominant a position in the market and was thus violating the competition law.
The office would not confirm whether it is conducting investigations citing statutory confidentiality obligations.
As film audiences shift from theaters to streaming, there is a push in the cinema industry to change the way it operates to get people on the seats.
The nature of Canada’s competition law makes it difficult to say whether there might be a successful litigation, says Jennifer Quaid, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa School of Law.
Determining whether a company has too much impact on a market is a “contextual assessment,” she said.
“There is no definition that says it’s X percent of the market.”
Quaid also says there aren’t many cases that advance abuse of dominant position and restrictive trade practices, making this case particularly difficult to speculate on.
The number of theaters that could show a film was previously limited by the number of copies available, each of which had a cost associated with it. The distribution process is now digital, but according to Huot, distributors haven’t changed their practices.
She says she’s willing to pay the same prices for films as the multiplexes and would like to know what needs to happen for the Screening Room to have access to new releases.
“We’re not a discount second-run theater, we’re only second-run because we can’t be anything else,” she said.
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