Current Events > 'Moonfall' isn't being released in Canada, at all

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/article-inside-the-mystery-of-the-missing-moonfall-the-biggest-movie-to-ever/

This weekend, the new end-of-the-world movie Moonfall is set to dominate the box office.

Directed by Roland Emmerich, the disaster-porn artist behind Independence Day, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, Moonfall looks gloriously trash-tacular. It features a curious collection of stars (Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Donald Sutherland), a head-shaking plot (a mysterious force has knocked the moon from its orbit and sent it hurtling toward Earth!), and a beautifully absurd tagline (In 2022, humanity will face the dark side of the Moon.)

For Canadians finally allowed back into theatres after yet another round of shutdowns Ontario cinemas reopened this past Monday, while Quebec venues welcome audiences back next Monday Moonfall sounds like the perfect no-brain-required entertainment for a dead-of-winter night out. Especially given that there isnt much else on offer at multiplexes, with Omicron-wary studios having largely abandoned January.

The only problem: Moonfall is not opening at any Canadian theatre this weekend. Nor will it be available on-demand. Moonfall is simply bypassing Canadian audiences entirely. And with a US$140-million production budget and huge launch across U.S. screens, it is the biggest release to ever do so.

This past Friday, Allied Global Marketing, which had been responsible for Moonfalls Canadian marketing in an arrangement with the films domestic distributor Mongrel Media, confirmed to The Globe and Mail that both companies were no longer handling the movies release. Up until that point, Moonfall had been an active concern: Mongrel posted trailers on its Facebook page as early as this past September, and the film was listed as opening Feb. 4 on the website of Cineplex, the countrys largest exhibitor. Posters were up in theatres, and Mongrels Twitter account promised an experience only in theatres and IMAX (tweets that, as of this writing, are still online).

So: What happened? Blame the Ontario and Quebec governments, says Canadian film industry veteran Victor Loewy.

Since 2019, Loewy, the former chief executive officer of Alliance Films, has been the leader behind a deal struck between Mongrel, Cineplex and Lionsgate Entertainment to jointly handle the Canadian theatrical distribution of films either acquired or produced by Lionsgate, including Moonfall.

The story is that three or four weeks before a release, we have to push the button to buy advertising: TV, newspapers, online, billboards. On a film like Moonfall, were looking at millions of dollars, Loewy said in an interview. In Ontario, no one was saying a word about reopening, and in Quebec it was worse. We were in complete darkness. At some point, you have to make a decision.

Loewy said Mongrel already spent $150,000 to advertise Moonfall last year. But given that Quebec shuttered theatres Dec. 20, and Ontario closed cinemas two weeks later, with no firm guarantee as to a reopening date in either province, the gamble of committing to further promotional spending was too risky.

At Christmas, we had American Underdog, and a few before that release, Quebec shut down. We took a big loss. So this is the way its playing out, Loewy said.

The only major 2022 movie to so far be theatrically released in Canada has been the new Scream film, which Paramount Pictures Canadian arm distributed in whichever regions were open Jan. 14. (Paramounts Jackass Forever arrives in theatres this weekend, as well.) But according to Loewy, the size and uncertainty of Ontario and Quebecs markets made the situation too risky for Moonfall.

Ontario and Quebec represent 70 per cent of Canadas box office, and the provinces that are open still have major restrictions on capacity, he said.

Moonfall will not be available in Canada through video-on-demand or streaming, either at least, not immediately. Instead, Moonfalls Canadian home-entertainment release will abide by however long Lionsgates theatrical window winds up being in the United States. (Comparable Lionsgate titles, such as last years The Hitmans Bodyguards Wife, took 45 days to move from the big screen to VOD.) Also, the process of pivoting from theatrical to digital is not akin to simply flipping a switch. Distributors VOD partners such as Apple TV and Rogers require deliveries of digital files at least 30 days before scheduled release dates.

The absence of Moonfall which, in a delicious smack of irony, was filmed in Montreal is a blow for Canadian audiences looking for big-screen escapism. But the move will also surely wound domestic theatre owners, who are already dealing with myriad public-health restrictions, a cautious consumer base, and few enticing new releases.

It came as a surprise to us, but it just falls under the guise of the current state of the theatrical market in Canada, said Landmark Cinemas CEO Bill Walker, who found out about Moonfalls exit this past Thursday, just a week before its scheduled release. Were running the business on pretty lean product right now, but more movies are trickling in.

As for speculation on social media that Moonfall was pulled because of a financial dispute between Mongrel and exhibitors over the box office percentage that the distributor was demanding theatres and distributors typically split ticket sales 50/50 all parties involved say that is not the case.

Thats absolutely not even close, Loewy said. At Alliance, we handled Lionsgate titles for 20 years or so, and nothings changed.

Sarah Van Lange, vice-president of communications for Cineplex, also said there was no truth to the rumour, adding in a statement that, We were disappointed to learn that a Canadian theatrical release of Moonfall wasnt part of the studios plans.

Loewy said that the Moonfall situation is an outlier for the Mongrel-Lionsgate slate. There are no plans to alter any of the companys coming 2022 Lionsgate releases, including the new Nicolas Cage film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which is scheduled to open in Canadian theatres April 22.

But the predicament cannot exactly be comforting for Canadian moviegoers, especially when compounded by the news this week that another pending Hollywood release, the Channing Tatum vehicle Dog, is also skipping this countrys theatres. (It is no longer being released by Canadian distributor Elevation Pictures. Currently, U.S. distributor MGM has the film scheduled to open stateside Feb. 18, though a studio representative did not immediately reply to a query from The Globe.)

Im always a bit nervous with whats happening with release schedules, but the trajectory of the pandemic lends itself to more certainty there than not, added Landmarks Walker. If we look at the U.S. and Europe, we can see where the pandemic restrictions are going, where consumer confidence is going. Those are encouraging global signs for us.

Eventually, mercifully, Canadians will be able to discover just why Moonfall star Patrick Wilson is compelled in the films trailer to utter the already immortal line, If the moon really is what you think it is ... suit up!

But until then, the only disaster we have to enjoy is the Canadian movie industry itself.

Apparently it's terrible so it doesn't sound like we're missing much, but this is funny

Moonfall: "set to dominate the box office."

Jackass Forever: Hold my penis...

This weekend, the new end-of-the-world movie Moonfall is set to dominate the box office.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/9/2/AANrk6AAC5i4.jpg

Canada can't get a break

Bio1590 posted...

Moonfall is set to dominate the box office.

Isn't it one of the biggest box office bombs now?

Moonfall sounds like a hilarious utter disaster. Everything I've heard makes me want to see it, just to see if it can possibly be as bad as people describe.

This weekend, the new end-of-the-world movie Moonfall is set to dominate the box office.

How is a movie that is being given next to almost no advertising going to dominate?

Seriously, I have seen the commercial for it only four times, and the first time I saw it, it looked like utter crap. Now that I know Roland Emmerich is directing it, I am not surprised.

I honesty never heard about this movie til this topic

If you are gonna make a shitty braindead action flick it's gotta have a shitty action actor in it like the rock or some body

I read the wikipedia plot summary and it sounds fucking nuts. Now I'm listening to critikal talk about it and he is makes it sound even crazier.

Bio1590 posted...

a mysterious force has knocked the moon from its orbit and sent it hurtling toward Earth!

Was it Majora?

lmao, roland emmerich. Canada wins again.

Moosefall, this ain't.

For some reason I operated under the assumption that he made Greenland. I was wondering how he popped out that solid movie. Now I know he didn't.

Roland Emmerich: Marvel and Star Wars are ruining the industry

Mickey Mouse: Shoulda kept you mouth shut you little prick

Oh, no. Canada is set to miss out on a wonderful movie from the director of Godzilla '98 and The Day After Tomorrow.

Yeah this article being from before this weekend is hilarious in hindsight. The fact that Jackass Forever kicked the shit out of it and that it barely finished ahead of a movie that's been in theatres for like 7 weeks at this point is incredible.