Netflix's first IMAX theatrical window was designed to be a statement. On November 25, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth opens exclusively in IMAX for two weeks before streaming December 23. A reported $200 million film. David Fincher directing. Quentin Tarantino writing. Brad Pitt returning as Cliff Booth. The streamer's clearest attempt yet to prove it can coexist with the multiplex.
Two of the three largest U.S. theater chains made a different calculation. According to IndieWire, Regal and Cinemark have both declined to book the film for their IMAX screens. IMAX gave exhibitor partners an opt-out when the booking schedule came in late and the Thanksgiving window was already crowded. Regal, with around 100 IMAX locations, and Cinemark, with around 20, chose to protect their premium screens for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which opens November 20 and carries a conventional release window.
AMC, the largest IMAX operator in the U.S. with roughly 200 screens, will show the film. Regional circuits are also participating. The global count stands at approximately 550 screens.
The story the absence tells is the older one. Netflix has, at various points since 2015, watched the major chains sit out its theatrical releases over window disputes. It has won Academy Awards, hired the most decorated directors working, and now secured this IMAX deal. The chains still weighed their options and chose the film that plays by the old rules.
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is set in 1977 Los Angeles, eight years after Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino showed the first 17 minutes at an AFI Fest screening in October. It arrives in AMC IMAX locations and select regional circuits on November 25.