News agency dpa reported that 686 theaters in 193 mostly small towns refused to show Avengers: Age of Ultron, which opened on Thursday. It said the dispute was over a decision to raise the rental fee for the movie to 53 per cent of ticket sales rather than the 47.7 per cent usually charged to small-town theatres.
Karl-Heinz Meier of IG Nord, a group representing cinema operators in northern Germany, said they would have been prepared to go as far as a 50 percent fee. He added: "Disney will have to do without 686 screens on which the film otherwise would have been shown."
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“We are worried, particularly about eastern Germany,” Karl-Heinz Meier, a spokesman for cinema advocacy group IG Nord said. “When prices go up, then we have a serious problem that could force movie theatres to close.”
As well as the raised fee, Disney has cut the money that it usually contributes towards advertising, as well as advances for 3D glasses. A statement from the studio read: “It goes against our company policy to publicly comment on confidential details regarding our business relationships.”