Spider-Man: No Way Home, an exciting superhero film, will be released worldwide tomorrow, December 16, 2021. It is slated for a release on 2000+ screens in India, and advance sales have been amazing. Because it is such a big deal, all multiplex chains will undoubtedly screen it many times. Except for one movie theatre chain.
That chain is Carnival Cinemas. A source told Bollywood Hungama, “It’s common knowledge that the Carnival group has been facing financial issues for a long time. They have defaulted on the payment of many studios or worse, have not paid them at all. So, many studios have been asking them to pay in advance 50% of the estimated collections that their film would accumulate in their properties over the weekend. So it is possible that Sony Pictures must have also put this condition to Carnival. Unless they make this advance payment and also clear possible past dues of Sony Pictures, they probably would not be allowed to play Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
Meanwhile, advance booking for tomorrow has begun at two Carnival cinemas in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region — Moviestar, Goregaon, and SM5 Kalyan – and, as expected, Spider-Man: No Way Home is not on the schedule.
A source from the exhibition sector said, “Carnival also owns an IMAX screen at Wadala, Mumbai. It’ll be the only IMAX screen in India or probably the world where Spider-Man: No Way Home won’t have a release. Many viewers were not able to buy tickets for Spider-Man: No Way Home in other IMAX properties in Mumbai. They have been waiting for the advance booking of IMAX Wadala to commence so that they can get to see this much-awaited screen on as big a screen as possible. Sadly, that might not happen if the issue is not resolved.”
The exhibition source added, “The Moviestar Carnival property in Mumbai has kept their biggest Audi vacant for tomorrow in the hope that Spider-Man: No Way Home would make it. If the problems are resolved, the film would be screened there. Other Carnival multiplexes might follow suit and keep one or two screens on standby.”
This isn’t the first time a film has treated Carnival Cinemas in this manner. Last month, Reliance Entertainment had pulled down the blockbuster Diwali film, Sooryavanshi, from their chain for a day after they missed on their payments.
