More Good News for Comcast's NBCUniversal Is More Bad News for AMC Theatres
In retrospect, the movie industry's opportunity to bypass theaters altogether and instead send new films directly into people's homes has probably always been there. It just took a pandemic to force the business to give it a shot. Trolls 2 World Tour from Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) unit NBCUniversal was the first mainstream studio-made flick to take that shot. The movie generated around $100 million worth of rental revenue during its first few weeks of availability, rivaling the first film's box office take. On a net basis, the sequel probably made more for Comcast's Universal than the original film did. In short, the model works -- or at least it did for this kids' movie.
This, of course, was the basis of a (very public) spat between NBCUniversal and movie theater chain AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC) that materialized in April. Protesting a long-established understanding between theaters and studios that gives movie houses exclusive access to a film's first 90 days of availability, AMC CEO Adam Aron vowed to discontinue showing any Universal titles in any AMC theater.
Image source: Getty Images.
Source Fool.com
