26/06/2006

Disney's major distribution company, Buena Vista International, is the target of a campaign led by Spanish exhibition chains Cinesa, Ábaco, Yelmo and Cinebox, which refused to premiere David Zucker's comedy Scary Movie 4 this past Friday.

This radical measure taken by the four exhibitors follows the May 10 decision of the Court for the Defence of Competition, which condemned the Spanish branches of five major American distribution companies to pay a €2.4m fine (see news) for not respecting Article 1 of the Law for the Defence of Competition.

"Until now, negotiations have gone smoothly with all of them, except for Buena Vista", said Ramón Sierra, Director General of Cinebox. In order to screen Scary Movie 4, Spanish exhibitors had to pay Buena Vista 60% of its box office in its first week of exhibition, 55% in the second week and 50% in the third week. "If independent distributors manage to offer lower prices, we don't see why major distributors can't reduce their prices and reach an agreement with us", continued Sierra.

Buena Vista reacted with by creating a website to inform moviegoers in which smaller exhibition chains the film is being screened. "Only in the best theatres! Not in all of them!" is the slogan that can be found in the portal www.dondeverla.com, where Buena Vista is also offering its visitors the possibility to win 50 Ipod Nanos.

A similar crisis may be repeated in the upcoming weeks as Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, also distributed by Buena Vista, is set to open locally.