Marvel Universe’s first set is coming to an end in a month’s time, with the Avengers: Endgame all set to release on the 26th of April, 2019. Captain Marvel is the final movie in the lead up to the big end but sadly, it looks like the Pakistani audience will remain deprived of watching the film in cinemas.
What exactly happened?
There has been a lot of foul cry and blame game that has been going on as to who is at fault here. Some proposed that India may be behind it? Well, here is the complete story:
Okay, so there has always been a fixed distributor of Disney films in Pakistan, at least that’s the case for a specified period of time, and Captain Marvel was also supposed to release under this banner.
Now as per sources this distributor had failed to clear past payments to Disney over last year’s releases and hence, Disney decided not to give the film to them. This distributor has also recently released two big movies in Pakistan which have done considerable business but apparently, the cinemas, owing to the recent situation, have not paid them their dues, resulting in a colossal loss for all.
Cinema chains make a lot of noise about being devoid of content but in this case, they, too, are to be blamed for if it wasn’t for them, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Captain Marvel, following this fiasco, was made available in the market by Disney for other distributors to buy, but the amount quoted by other distributors was apparently not good enough for them to revert back.
It’s still not clear who should be blamed for this loss but all the aforementioned parties had, at least, some role to play. One cinema chain went as far as to blame the Disney regional office, whose head resides in India (the aim was to take advantage of the prevailing tensions between the two countries), rather than trying to get rights of the film, through their own distribution office.
What should the cinemas do now?
Avengers: Endgame is about to release in one month’s time and it is very important that all these issues are sorted by that time. Cinemas need to be smart about how they are planning to survive this dead period as the 22nd March releases will not get them the required push, for our audiences are not in the habit of flocking to theaters anymore. They need to realize that a big release always brings consistent footfalls and helps smaller releases – considering the kind of business Captain Marvel has done worldwide.
Here’s hoping sense prevails soon for once the customer is frustrated, the cinemas may have to close themselves down; the most recent example being the closure of Plaza cinema.
