Major UK cinema chain Cineworld will not be showing Quentin Tarantino’s latest film The Hateful Eight in the region, the company has announced.
The Hateful Eight is set to release in UK cinemas on Friday (January 8th), though it has now been confirmed by Cineworld that an issue with the film’s distributor has led to them cancelling its scheduled showings in their cinemas. Responding to Twitter users who questioned why the company’s site had dropped its previously displayed promotional material for the film, Cineworld stated: “Unfortunately we have been unable to come to an agreement with the distributor and as a result we won’t be showing this film.”
@glenfandango Hey Glen, sadly we haven’t been able to come to an agreement with the distributor which means it won’t be shown at Cineworld.
— Cineworld Cinemas (@cineworld) January 4, 2016
@JamesDrury @glenfandango We wish it wasn’t true James, but it is unfortunately.
— Cineworld Cinemas (@cineworld) January 4, 2016
After having to field complaints from Unlimited Card owners, who pay £16.99 per month in order to view any film, Cineworld replied: “Our hands are tied,” adding: “It’s a joint decision between ourselves and the distributor.” The chain also claimed that not showing the film was a “last minute decision” as “talks with distributors continue all the way up until a movie is released”.
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Cineworld confirmed that it would not be showing the film to Digital Spy, releasing a statement which reads:”We can confirm that The Hateful Eight will not be shown at our cinemas.
“Unfortunately we were not able to reach an agreement with the movie’s distributor. We make every effort to show a wide variety of movies and we’re very excited about other releases in January including Joy and The Danish Girl.”
The Hateful Eight was released on December 25th in the US to a reasonably positive critical reception, though it was the subject of a major leak at the hands of piracy group Hive-CM8, who distributed the movie online ahead of its release. With Cineworld being the second largest cinema chain in the UK, it has been speculated that them failing to show the film could lead more people to illegally download the movie instead, with it looking likely that this decision will greatly impact upon its fortunes in the region.
