Downton Abbey: The Movie appears to be up for pre-booking everywhere, but Vue Cinemas.
Earlier this year, you may recall that a couple of Universal Pictures titles – How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and Mary: Queen Of Scots – were in the midst of a seeming disagreement with Vue Cinemas. Whilst neither party made an official statement on the matter that we could see, Vue Cinemas initially didn’t show Mary: Queen Of Scots at all, and it also held back on prebooking for the How To Train Your Dragon sequel.
You can read more on the story here.
At the heart of the dispute was apparently Vue’s policy of low price tickets across several of its sites, and just how that revenue was split (the thinking being if Vue decides to discount the price, should the company who made the film be penalised). Previously, Vue had gone toe to toe with Warner Bros last year, that affected screenings of A Star Is Born.
Anyway: all seemed to have been resolved, but then we’ve been contacted by a fine Film Stories reader by the name of Paul Ferrer. And he’s noticed that whereas every other chain in the UK is accepting pre-booking for tickets to Downton Abbey: The Movie, the film is nowhere to be found on the Vue website. At least to book tickets for.
This is no small movie, either. Already, there’s an expectation that Downton Abbey: The Movie is going to be a gigantic hit in the UK alone, with my local Empire Cinema in Rubery scheduling 14 showings for day one alone, across multiple screens.
Whether this will all be resolved by release date remains to be seen, and whether it’s a storm in a proverbial teacup, and tickets go on sale shortly, is also a case of time will tell. But given past form, something has gone awry here. We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.
