“Foreign companies have not yet informed us of the suspension of their activities”: What does the official Russian release of “Batman” mean for the industry and should we expect more premieres?

The audience has been waiting for Batman by Matt Reeves for several years, and on March 3 the main premiere of the year was supposed to appear on the screens in Russia, but Warner Bros. canceled the lease the day before its release. Later, in April, the movie was released digitally on HBO Max, and domestic pirate sites were hacked by viewers – the same day the tape appeared on Torrents and most likely broke download records. At some point, such versions even began to be shown in theaters, but a few months later, Batman still got the official release – on the eve of the Moscow Kinosphere, IMAX announced that the film will be available to watch in theaters from today. official version. In the meantime, most of the tickets for the sessions on June 17 (there are four in the evening) have already been redeemed. How is that possible and does it mean we’ll soon be seeing other Hollywood premieres that have been missed on the big screens? Discussed with representatives of the “Kinosfera”.

Artem Pavlovsky, Digital Marketing Manager for Cinema 5 and Zoom Cinema

The IMAX Cinema Sphere has begun the official launch of Matt Reeves’ Batman movie “based on license agreements signed in February.” In that case, why was the movie not released before and how did you organize the screening?

The cinemas have a signed and valid license agreement that has not been terminated today and has full legal force. In February, some of the cinemas signed additional agreements to the licensing agreement for the distribution of the movie “Batman”. The content was uploaded to the servers of the cinemas by the film company and the Russian Ministry of Culture issued a distribution certificate dated 25.02.22 and numbered 121005022. Note that foreign film companies have not yet officially informed us about the suspension of their activities in Russia, and according to the terms of the license agreements, unilateral rejection of the copyright holder does not apply if there is no infringement by the cinema. provided in principle.

The film could indeed be shown as early as March. But at that moment neither we nor the distributors knew what to do and just waited.

Then our banks were also subject to sanctions and we lost the means to transfer money to distributors.

On May 27, 2022, the President of the Russian Federation signed Decree No. 322, resolving the emerging conflict situation. Therefore, paragraph 2 of the said Decree establishes a provisional procedure for the fulfillment of obligations to foreign copyright holders by transferring funds to a special ruble account of type “O”, which must be opened on behalf of the copyright holder in an authorized bank. After the announcement of the clarifications of the decree, we sent appropriate notices to potential copyright holders, formally offering to agree to open a special account to which we will transfer the license fee in accordance with the previously concluded agreement.

So, only now we have a complete chain for possible viewing and agreement with the copyright holder. According to our data, approximately 30% of the cinemas managed to sign additional agreements for Batman. As a result, around 30% of movie theaters that preserve content are now able to show it.

Are there any other previously canceled Hollywood premieres such as Top Gun, Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore, Doctor Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness planned for the near future?

Not currently scheduled. Without a change in the legal framework, non-contractual exercise of rights is not possible in Russia.

If we have all the necessary documents and legal grounds to show the movie “Batman”, in the case with other foreign premieres, we do not have all of them.

Kinosfera IMAX is, above all, a brand with a history, quality and reliability. Law will be passed, we will think of new films. It’s too early to talk about that yet, and “Batman” remains a one-shot story.

It became known literally the day before the premiere that one of the most anticipated films of the year will debut at the IMAX Kinosphere. Why didn’t such an event have a large-scale promotion?

A decree was issued on May 27, clarifications were made on June 7, by June 12 our lawyers had established a full legal position, spent two days checking whether the data about the Batman movie was received by the UAIS system – and so we got the date of the 15th . And the choice arose: either spend another month on a large-scale promotion, or go out now and leave the promotion at the mercy of the mass media. We went for the second option.

Is the cinema breaking the law by showing movies now? What potential risks can you expect?

We do not see any violations in the current legislation. Foreign film companies have not officially announced the suspension of activities, all necessary documents and distribution certificate are available for the screening, license agreements are signed and partially signed (in terms of movie advertising) by the cinemas and not cancelled. Public screening of the film, the distribution certificate is valid, we report to the UAIS system, we are waiting for a response from the copyright holder about the possibility of accepting royalties, and I assure you, they will be paid.

Can you give the name of the source of the movie copy?

A copy of the movie was uploaded to the servers at the end of February before the studios decided to leave.

And in our case downloading movies from Torrent is a utopian story even from a technical standpoint.

Stretching such an image onto a 24 meter screen is unrealistic and showing a poor quality movie with poor quality sound is the same as “pushing &!#$”. Even if non-contractual rights management law is enacted, we will not display content unless we negotiate the delivery of original copies of DCP made specifically for the theatre.