January is pretty much the craziest yet best month in the UK when it comes to going to the cinema, we get plenty of great films that we just know are going to be in and around the awards season obviously heading towards the Oscars. A film that has been talked about a lot since it’s US roadshow has been The Hateful Eight. Obviously the hype as well surrounding the film due to the fact that it is the next Quentin Tarantino film, and something I had in my cinema plans to go and see on it’s UK release this Friday.
As you know I have an Unlimited Card for Cineworld, which incase you don’t know are monthly passes where you pay once and go as many times as you want or possibly can! It really does work out at a fantastic saving over the course of the year. Although sometimes the film choices or lack of wide releases does have an impact if you really are into your films of course. But this is the big one really Cineworld will not be showing The Hateful Eight. This was first discovered and announced last night as people noticed it had been taken off the website/app/booking places for the whole cinema chain!
Twitter was pretty crazy last night and that followed into this morning with Cineworld being bombarded with tweets asking if they are showing the film and why not! Which I guess was a fair question but at the same time surely people could actually read the previous tweets! What has been said is that an agreement could not be reached with the film distributor, which has now been elaborated slightly more today that it is to do with the type of screening the film is in.
Cineworld also own Picturehouse so they aren’t showing it either along with Curzon cinemas. Which are pretty big across the UK! I have been checking today to see which places near me are then showing the film, I am left with plenty of choice with Odeon, Empire, Vue and Tyneside Cinema all showing it in the North East of England. My only issue with this is that I then have to pay a similar price to what I pay each month for a screening which does not seem fair or the point of having the Unlimited Card.
The worst thing is I am not a massive Tarantino fan, really do love Pulp Fiction (but doesn’t everyone) but I feel that this now makes the film even more desirable and other cinema chains are surely going to profit from Cineworld deciding a few days before not to screen the film. It certainly has drummed up even more publicity (not that it didn’t have any before) for the film without really asking. I can see it making people wonder if its because of the actual film and therefore making even more of an effort to get to a cinema. I mean come on how many TV chat shows have we seen Kurt Russell and/or Tarantino himself on over the festive period!
Although part of the statement from the Film Distributors . . .
“If Cineworld change their mind by tomorrow morning and decide to book the film in the proper way along the lines of the other exhibitors we would be happy for them to do so.”
I don’t really see if that is a possibility or not, but I guess we will have to wait and see? Will the fallout from the customers and having to send them else where to watch the film be too much? As other parts of the statement claim it was because they decided to screen the 70mm at the Odeon in Leicester Square and not Picturehouse, seems a bit crazy if that is the reason behind it all?
If you’re a fellow Unlimited Card holder are you going to just miss this film?
Or will you be heading to another Cinema chain?
