No ‘Minions’ or ‘Jurassic World’ in AMC theaters? It’s possible after ‘Trolls’ success

The decision by Universal Pictures to drop “Trolls World Tour” from theaters may have a lasting impact on the movie-going experience.

Instead of delaying the “Trolls” movie until theaters across the country could reopen following coronavirus stay-at-home orders, Universal opted to release the sequel digitally through rentals. NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell told The Wall Street Journal the results “have exceeded our expectations,” as it racked up nearly $100 million in three weeks.

Shell told the Journal that because of its success, Universal will release movies in both formats in the future.

That struck a chord with AMC Entertainment CEO and President Adam Aron, who operates the largest movie theater operation in the world.

“It is disappointing to us, but Jeff’s comments as to Universal’s unilateral actions and intentions have left us with no choice,” Aron said. “Therefore, effective immediately AMC will no longer play any Universal movies in any of our theatres in the United States, Europe or the Middle East.”

Aron added that AMC would be willing to sit down with Universal to discuss mutually beneficial strategies. AMC has more than 1,000 theaters worldwide.

“AMC believes that with this proposed action to go to the home and theatres simultaneously, Universal is breaking the business model and dealings between our two companies,” Aron said.

Upcoming Universal releases include “Jurassic World: Dominion” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which are both due out summer 2021. Two Tom Hanks movies — “Bios” and “News of the World” — are scheduled for release during the second half of 2020.

Universal already has announced that the Judd Apatow and Pete Davidson-led movie “King of Staten Island” will be released in the same format as “Trolls.”

In a statement to CNBC, Universal said it hopes to have “private conversations” with AMC but admitted its disappointment with the theater’s decision.

“Our desire has always been to efficiently deliver entertainment to as wide an audience as possible,” Universal stated. “We absolutely believe in the theatrical experience and have made no statement to the contrary. As we stated earlier, going forward, we expect to release future films directly to theatres, as well as on PVOD when that distribution outlet makes sense.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 8:52 AM with the headline "No ‘Minions’ or ‘Jurassic World’ in AMC theaters? It’s possible after ‘Trolls’ success."