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Hundreds of German cinemas refuse to show Avengers film

BERLIN – Several hundred movie theaters in Germany have refused to screen the new Avengers film in a dispute over rental fees with Disney.

Dave Hollis, executive vice president of theatrical exhibition sales and distribution for Walt Disney Studios, talks about the studio's upcoming film Avengers: Age of Ultron, during the Walt Disney Studios presentation at CinemaCon 2015 at Caesars Palace on Wednesday, April 22, 2015, in Las Vegas. Photo: AP

Dave Hollis, executive vice president of theatrical exhibition sales and distribution for Walt Disney Studios, talks about the studio's upcoming film Avengers: Age of Ultron, during the Walt Disney Studios presentation at CinemaCon 2015 at Caesars Palace on Wednesday, April 22, 2015, in Las Vegas. Photo: AP

BERLIN – Several hundred movie theaters in Germany have refused to screen the new Avengers film in a dispute over rental fees with Disney.

News agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported that 686 theaters in 193 mostly small towns refused to show Avengers: Age of Ultron, which opened on Thursday (April 23). It said the dispute was over a decision to raise the rental fee for the movie to 53 per cent of ticket sales rather than the 47.7 per cent usually charged to small-town theatres.

Karl-Heinz Meier of IG Nord, a group representing cinema operators in northern Germany, said they would have been prepared to go as far as a 50 per cent fee. He added: “Disney will have to do without 686 screens on which the film otherwise would have been shown.”

Meier says movie-goers have expressed understanding. AP

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