The Canadian company IMAX, which left the Russian market in June, banned the use of its equipment in Russia, despite the fact that it formally belongs to the owners of cinema networks. The ban even extends to showing domestic films. This was announced to RBC by the general director of Cinema Park and Formula Kino Alexei Vasyasin.
“Technically, a projector can show any movie. Another issue is that it is impossible to show a film in IMAX format without IMAX permission. Even Russian films in this format — “Movement Up”, “Stalingrad” — now, unfortunately, we cannot show, because there is a direct ban on the use of the format by the company,” Vasyasin said.
Vasyasin said that cinema chains are ready to sue the company if “they don’t remember about this contract by the end of this year”:
“First, we will file lawsuits; secondly, we will show movies in a different format on this equipment. We have a very strict contract with them, according to which they are obliged to work here.”
The day before (August 22) it was reported that BBC Studios had stopped licensing all of its content to Russian users.
At the end of July, the Russian Association of Cinema Owners asked for an exemption from liability for showing foreign films without the consent of film companies in order to leave a "window of opportunity for showing Hollywood content."