***UPDATED: April 26, 2013, 11:46 a.m. Regal and AMC have agreed to a deal with Disney that will allow them to begin re-selling advance tickets to “Iron Man 3.” Regal announced in a statement that the blockbuster film will be playing in Regal, Edwards and United Artists theaters on May 3 and tickets will be available for purchase on Fandango.***
Due to a revenue sharing dispute, Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment, which are the two largest theater chains in the U.S, have stopped selling advance tickets to Disney’s “Iron Man 3”.
The biggest chains’ united front makes it tougher for Disney, owner of Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm, to obtain better terms for “Iron Man 3,” and future films. Regal and AMC account for about 30 percent of US screens, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.
This is a huge worry because nearly every major theater in the greater Fresno area is under the Regal Entertainment umbrella. Unless you want to travel to Modesto or Sacramento for IMAX, then there is a chance that you may miss 2013’s first blockbuster film.
“Iron Man 3” stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Don Cheadle as James Rhodes and Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin.
Claims have been made by boxoffice.com that the film has that potential to earn $151 million in its opening weekend. If there is not a deal in place by May 3, the date the film is set to release, then those numbers will more than likely be wrong.
In a statement released by the Regal Cinemas Facebook page they described the worst case scenario.
“Hopefully everything will be settled soon and it’s not, ticket purchases will be refunded.”
