Cinépolis, the Mexican movie theater chain, which also owns the OTT Cinépolis Klic, issued a statement in which it asks Netflix to postpone the release of “Roma” -the movie directed by Alfonso Cuarón- and “respect the traditional theatrical window”, to be able to premiere it in cinemas on November 29.
“Roma” has its premiere scheduled on Netflix next December 14. Meanwhile, it is available in theaters. Last week, the film was released in new locations, after Cuarón used Twitter to ask for the movie to be release in more theaters.
However, both Cinépolis and Cinemex, two of the main cinema chains, had not commented on the matter, although Matt Bodlie, director of acquisitions for Netflix, had invited them to be part of the project and exhibit the film.
Last Thursday, Cinépolis finally issued a statement requesting to push back the release on the OTT platform. “We invite Netflix to postpone the premiere of ‘Roma’ on its platform to respect the traditional window of exhibition in movie theaters, and Cinépolis will be happy to premiere it as of November 29 in all of our cinemas nationwide, which provide coverage to more than 75 cities in all the states of the Mexican Republic,” the company said.
“All over the world, movies that are shown in movie theaters require a period during which they are not available on other platforms or channels. These periods are known as ‘windows’. Both distributors and exhibitors work worldwide with an exhibition window in movie theaters of approximately 90 days,” explained the company. News site Expansión asked about this issue to Cinemex, which did not give an immediate response.