If your local cinema is an Odeon, there’s one major movie that’s conspicuously absent from the titles showing there: Rambo. The ultra-violent sequel isn’t playing in any of the 100-odd sites owned by the UK’s biggest cinema chain. Distributor Sony is remaining tight-lipped about the spat with Odeon, but other sources tell us that there has been a disagreement over what the industry calls “commercial terms”: how the ticket price is split between distributor and cinema. Most films are released under “standard” terms, thus avoiding the need for a separate negotiation on every single release; blockbusters have “special” terms, which give a bigger slice of each ticket sold to the distributor. We are guessing that Odeon didn’t like Sony’s terms on Rambo. The loser has been the film: a year ago, Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa opened on 405 screens, grossing £3.6million on its opening weekend; whereas Rambo just opened on 300 screens, taking £1.2million. Oh dear…
Rambo is snubbed