Denver Film Society joins 3 others in suit
Claim: Landmark coerces to get movies from distributors
The Denver Film Society and three other independent film exhibitors say Landmark Theatres uses its market muscle to keep them from showing certain first-run movies in markets where they compete against the big art-house chain.
The theaters on Tuesday sued in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., accusing Landmark and its Dallas-based parent, 292 Entertainment, of coercing film distributors for the exclusive right to screen art, independent, foreign and documentary films, such as “My Cousin Rachel” and last year’s Oscar-winning “Moonlight.”
The antitrust filing claims Landmark and 292 Entertainment — both owned by billionaire Mark Cuban — use the agreements to quash competition. It seeks a jury trial and monetary damages.
“It really hurts independent theaters like us, it denies consumers choice and, frankly, we believe it hurts filmmakers and denies them the potential market for their own films,” Denver Film Society executive director Andrew Rodgers said.
Landmark, which operates the Mayan, Esquire, Chez Artiste and Landmark at Greenwood Village theaters in Colorado, in addition to nearly 50 other theaters in 21 U.S. metro areas, declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The Denver Film Society is joined in the lawsuit by Cinema Detroit, and West End Cinema and Avalon Theatre, both in Washington, D.C.
The lawsuit is an echo of one that was settled in August 2016, in which Landmark accused Regal Entertainment of strongarming film distributors such as Sony, Lionsgate and Disney into keeping first-run films out of Landmark theaters in Washington, D.C., according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Now the tables have turned. “One of the jokes in the independent film community over the past year is if you were to have taken that lawsuit Landmark filed and replaced the complainant names with ours, with Landmark as the aggressor, we could have filed it almost verbatim,” Rodgers said. “(West End Cinema) was literally run out of business by Landmark and their location was taken over by Landmark, so their financial injuries are substantial and unique. But we’ve heard that story before from other places.”
Rodgers said he and other theater owners have tried for the last few years to work
through their distributors for a more equitable arrangement with Landmark.
“In a nutshell, Landmark has said they’re not interested in trying to give anybody a share of the market in specialty films — those being films that are going to make decent money for them, become breakout hits, awards contenders or have national marketing campaigns behind them,” Rodgers said.
To exhibit a film, a movie theater must obtain a license from the film’s distributor, which is responsible for marketing the film and acting as a middleman between the production studio and the theater, Rodgers said.
In this case, distributors have been the de facto enforcers of those clearances, Rodgers added, limiting their ability to provide other theaters with in-demand indie movies.
Since 2010, when it opened the Sie FilmCenter, the nonprofit Denver Film Society has been unable to book a single film that Landmark was also showing at one of its local theaters, the lawsuit said.
Operators of the Sie’s former tenant, Neighborhood Flix, told The Denver Post in 2008 that they were forced to close due to an inability to grab first-run indie and art-house titles from Landmark or Regal.
Taking on “the 800pound gorilla” in this new lawsuit bears some risk for the small businesses and nonprofits involved, the Denver Film Society said in an email sent to its supporters Tuesday, cosigned by Rodgers and board president Robert Clasen.
“But after years of trying to work within the system and talking with partners and peers about how we can overcome the unfair competition we face from Landmark, we have come to the conclusion that this is a nationwide problem that affects the entire independent film community and must be addressed,” they wrote.