Regal, Cinemark tell Netflix to Take Their Two Week Theatrical Window and Shove It...

With three weeks to go before its theatrical opening, Netflix's The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth has run into a familiar Hollywood dispute in a new form: two of the largest cinema chains in the United States have declined to show it on their IMAX screens. The decision does not cancel the film's cinema release, but it shrinks it, redraws the map of where audiences can see it on a large-format screen, and puts the long-running argument over theatrical windows (how long a film plays only in cinemas before it reaches streaming) back at the center of the Thanksgiving box office.

The film, directed by David Fincher from a script by Quentin Tarantino and starring Brad Pitt, is a follow-up to Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Pitt returns as Cliff Booth, the stuntman he played in that film, in a story set in 1977, eight years after the events of the original. Reports describe Booth now working in Los Angeles as a bartender and revival-cinema projectionist who also acts as an off-the-books fixer for Hollywood figures. Tarantino wrote the script but did not return to direct; Fincher took over, and Timothy Olyphant is also among the cast.

What happened

According to reporting by IndieWire, first picked up widely on October 30, Regal and Cinemark have declined to play Cliff Booth on their IMAX screens as part of its IMAX-exclusive theatrical run beginning November 25, 2026. The film will instead play on AMC's IMAX screens and on smaller circuits, bringing its worldwide screen total to roughly 550, down from a larger footprint that would have included Regal's roughly 100 IMAX screens in the United States and Cinemark's roughly 20.

AMC, which operates the world's largest IMAX network, accounts for about 200 of those U.S. IMAX screens. A separate venue-by-venue count published on November 2, based on the film's official site, put the total slightly lower, at 523 venues across roughly 55 countries and territories, with 219 of them in the United States and AMC accounting for 187 venues worldwide. The difference reflects the difference between counting screens and counting venues, and the venue list itself was still moving as the release approached. The same count noted that several major markets, including Australia, France, India and South Korea, had no venues listed at that point.

The window at the center of the dispute

Cliff Booth is scheduled to open in IMAX theatres on Wednesday, November 25, 2026, for an exclusive two-week run, before arriving on Netflix on Wednesday, December 23, 2026... less than a month later. Some reporting describes that gap as a 27-day exclusive theatrical window, which is longer than Netflix's usual cinema runs but far shorter than the traditional windows major studios have historically given their theatrical releases.

That gap is the point of contention. Regal's senior vice president of U.S. content, Brooks LeBoeuf, said in a statement to IndieWire that premium screens are allocated partly on the basis of a distributor's commitment to the theatrical marketplace. "Regal's premium screens are among our most valuable assets, and one of the factors we consider in how we allocate them is the level of commitment distributors make to the theatrical marketplace," LeBoeuf said. "Shortened theatrical windows have a direct impact on those decisions, as they limit the opportunity for audiences to experience films on the big screen."

LeBoeuf added that Regal would prioritize releases that recognize the value of theatrical exclusivity, naming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping specifically and saying it would have Regal's full support in IMAX. Cinemark has not, in the reporting surveyed for this article, been quoted with a statement as detailed as Regal's, but its booking decision is reported as the same: it declined the IMAX engagement for Cliff Booth.

Netflix's position, as reflected in the release plan itself, is different. The company has historically been reluctant to give its films long cinema runs, typically offering only limited theatrical engagements, often for awards consideration. An IMAX-exclusive, two-week run for Cliff Booth is, by Netflix standards, an unusually prominent theatrical push — the first time, according to one report, that a Netflix title has been given an exclusively IMAX release before streaming. From Netflix's perspective, the IMAX run gives a high-profile film a big-screen event release without surrendering the streaming date central to its business. From Regal's and Cinemark's perspective, a film that will be available at home before Christmas does not justify surrendering their most valuable screens during one of the busiest moviegoing weeks of the year.

Why the timing matters

The timing sharpens the dispute. Thanksgiving in 2026 falls on Thursday, November 26, the day after Cliff Booth opens. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, from Lionsgate, opens on Friday, November 20, meaning its second weekend falls over the Thanksgiving period. If Regal and Cinemark kept Sunrise on the Reaping on their IMAX screens for that second weekend rather than switching to Cliff Booth, they would be backing a traditional studio release with a longer theatrical life ahead of it, rather than a streaming title with a December 23 streaming date already set.

Reporting on the booking process offers a further explanation for why the chains were able to say no in this case. IMAX normally exercises tight control over what plays on its screens, leaving exhibitors with little say in programming. In this instance, however, because IMAX came aboard as a partner late in the booking schedule, exhibitors were given an opt-out, they could decline Cliff Booth if they judged that the return would not justify giving up prime holiday showtimes. Regal and Cinemark took that option, and other smaller chains are also reported to have passed.

The Thanksgiving IMAX slot that Cliff Booth now occupies was originally set for Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew. That film was moved to February so that it could have a longer run in theatres and a clearer window on IMAX screens, and Netflix moved Cliff Booth into the vacated slot.

The split among the chains is also notable because it reverses a recent precedent. When Netflix released a KPop Demon Hunters sing-along in August 2025, Regal and Cinemark booked it while AMC declined. This time, AMC is the chain showing the Netflix film and Regal and Cinemark are the ones sitting it out as a reminder that these decisions are made title by title and on the terms of each release rather than as blanket policies for or against a single company.

What to watch next

For audiences, the practical consequence is straightforward: anyone hoping to see Cliff Booth in IMAX will need to check whether a nearby AMC or independent IMAX location is carrying it, rather than assuming that the nearest large-format screen will have it. For Netflix, the consequence is a smaller theatrical footprint for what was intended as a showcase cinema release. For the chains that declined, the consequence is a bet that Sunrise on the Reaping in its second weekend, and other traditional releases over Thanksgiving, will deliver more value from those premium screens than a Netflix title with a streaming date less than a month away.

Several questions remain open. The final screen and venue counts may still change as the November 25 opening approaches, and ticket sales will test both sides of the argument: whether an IMAX-exclusive run, even a reduced one, can generate the event attention Netflix wants, and whether holding premium screens for a longer-window studio release pays off over Thanksgiving. Netflix is also reported to be planning to report box office figures for the film, which would give the industry a clearer measure of how the reduced rollout performed.

Neither side in this dispute is arguing that cinema and streaming cannot coexist. The argument is narrower, and therefore harder to settle: how much exclusivity a cinema release must offer before a theatre chain treats it as worth its best screens. Cliff Booth (a film by two of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers, starring one of its biggest stars, opening on one of the year's biggest weekends) was supposed to be the test case that proved a Netflix film could command those screens. Instead, it has become the test case for what happens when two of the biggest chains decide that the window, not the names above the title, is the deciding factor.