10/09/2003

From October 3, EasyCinema, the no-frills exhibition company will for the first time show a first run title at Cineworld, its cinema complex in Milton Keynes (north of London). 20th Century Fox’s Down With Love, the romantic comedy with Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger will be offered to Cineworld’s cinemagoers at prices starting at £1, five to six times cheaper than at other sites where the film will open simultaneously.
“This is an important breakthrough on EasyCinema’s long road to lowering the cost of going to the movies for consumers”, said Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of EasyCinema and the chairman of EasyGroup. The Greek businessman intends to revolutionise the exhibition industry by applying to the sector the ‘bums-on-seats’ philosophy of its low-cost airline EasyJet. But so far he had been blocked by the UK’s biggest distributors-including the US majors’ distribution arms-who refused to provide him with first run titles and discuss his proposal of paying a flat fee up front for each print instead of the usual box office split between exhibitors and distributors.

Under EasyCinema’s request, the British anti-competition body the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is currently investigating into the practises adopted by UK film distributors and its first findings –announced in late July- were that a number of practices from large distributors were indeed restricting competition. Fox’s decision to provide a first run title to EasyCinema might be a sign of cooperation from the US majors, even if they say this is just a one-off.