Vue moves into distribution after Hollywood strikes limit film supply

Europe’s largest privately owned cinema operator Vue International is moving into film distribution following a lack of supply after the Hollywood strikes.

The company set up a distribution arm in the UK last month with the goal of rolling out British, foreign and independent films on its own screens and those of rivals. Vue also announced during the Cannes Film Festival last month that it would team up with UK producers Andy Paterson and Annalise Davis, and virtual production company Dimension Studio, in a project to distribute films they produce.

“Because of the Hollywood strikes, we are suffering this year with a number of movies, [as] we have a supply issue,” chief executive Tim Richards told the Financial Times. “As a consequence, we thought it was a very opportune time to start bringing our own movies in.”

He added that Vue would eventually expand its distribution business to continental Europe and that it was hiring for the business.

Moving into distribution is a relatively unusual move for a cinema chain, but the new arm will allow Vue to gain greater control of films after a period of limited supply.

The first joint industry strike in 60 years by Hollywood actors and screenwriters last summer brought filming to a near standstill during much of 2023.

Vue, which operates 220 sites in eight countries including the UK, Ireland, Germany and Italy, earlier this year released Italian dramedy There’s Still Tomorrow in the UK in its first attempt to distribute a movie.

The world’s largest cinema chain, the US’s AMC, is also expanding its distribution business following its success in concert films such as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.

“Obviously, distributors are still in charge in terms of film supply,” said David Hancock, who leads cinema research at consultancy Omdia.

But given the pressure on the supply of content, Vue’s foray into distribution “gives them some flexibility and some control over what they can play in their cinemas”.

Vue’s Richards said its eight-year experience in building and deploying a predictive artificial intelligence model to determine what films to show on which screens would give the distribution arm a head start in matching films with particular cinemas.

“We know who wants to see Asian films, Turkish films, Polish or Italian films. We know where those audiences are because of our extensive use of AI,” he said.

The technology allows Vue to adjust scheduling to demand with more day-to-day and intraday variation. The company claimed it had been able to screen more films on any given week than other competitors.

“Normally you would give an opening film the biggest and best screen on opening weekend,” Richards said. “[But] the AI would say, maybe with this movie, you should give it the second-biggest screen and keep last week’s movie on the big screen for another week because it’s still doing really well.”

Hancock added: “Cinema is quite a traditional sector. Taking away the film programmer and putting in machine learning to schedule films was quite a bold move [ . . . ] Competitors haven’t done this yet at scale,” he said.