Spider-Man: No Way Home won’t release in Carnival Cinemas due to financial reasons

By Fenil Seta -

December 15, 2021 - 7:26 PM IST

The exciting superhero film, Spider-Man: No Way Home is all set to release tomorrow, December 16, 2021, across the world. In India, it is all set to have a release in 2000+ screens and the advance sales have been phenomenal. Since it is such a biggie, all multiplex chains are obviously going to play it in multiple shows. Except for one cinema chain.

Spider-Man: No Way Home won’t release in Carnival Cinemas due to financial reasons

That chain is Carnival Cinemas. A source told Bollywood Hungama, "It's common knowledge that the Carnival group has been facing financial issues for a long time. They have defaulted on the payment of many studios or worse, have not paid them at all. So, many studios have been asking them to pay in advance 50% of the estimated collections that their film would accumulate in their properties over the weekend. So it is possible that Sony Pictures must have also put this condition to Carnival. Unless they make this advance payment and also clear possible past dues of Sony Pictures, they probably would not be allowed to play Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

Meanwhile, two cinemas of Carnival in Mumbai Metropolitan Region – at Moviestar, Goregaon and SM5 Kalyan – have already started the advance booking for tomorrow and as expected, Spider-Man: No Way Home doesn’t feature in the playing programme.

A source from the exhibition sector said, “Carnival also owns an IMAX screen at Wadala, Mumbai. It’ll be the only IMAX screen in India or probably the world where Spider-Man: No Way Home won’t have a release. Many viewers were not able to buy tickets for Spider-Man: No Way Home in other IMAX properties in Mumbai. They have been waiting for the advance booking of IMAX Wadala to commence so that they can get to see this much-awaited screen on as big a screen as possible. Sadly, that might not happen if the issue is not resolved.”

The exhibition source added, “The Moviestar Carnival property in Mumbai has kept their biggest Audi vacant for tomorrow in the hope that Spider-Man: No Way Home would make it. If the problems are resolved, the film would be screened there. Other Carnival multiplexes might follow suit and keep one or two screens on standby.”

This is not the first film to give such treatment to Carnival Cinemas. Last month, Reliance Entertainment had pulled down the grand Diwali release, Sooryavanshi, from their chain for a day after they defaulted on their payments. A source revealed, “Even Sajid Nadiadwala has discontinued Tadap from the second week, possibly due to the matters of finance.”

We tried contacting Prashant Kulkarni, Chief Marketing Officer at Carnival Cinemas but he was unavailable for comment.

P.S.: After the article went live, the bookings of Spider-Man: No Way Home commenced in the theatres of Carnival cinemas

Also Read: After MIND-BOGGLING advance sales of Spider-Man: No Way Home, trade feels that it can break the first-day box office record of Sooryavanshi