'Army Of The Dead': Netflix Strikes Major Deal With Cinemark To Release Its Zombie Film On The Big Screen

A year ago, theaters across the world were shut down due to the COVID pandemic. Now, as theaters begin to reopen and in the US, large cinema chains hope the summer will be a time of rebounding, it appears that one major theater company is willing to team up with Netflix to help make that happen with the new film, “Army of the Dead.”

For those unaware, for years now, Netflix has tried to get theater chains to showcase the company’s original films. However, with theaters demanding 60+ day exclusivity windows and Netflix only willing to give a few weeks of exclusivity, no deal for Netflix films to appear at AMC, Regal, or Cinemark was ever made. But boy, oh boy, what a difference a year makes.

Now, according to Variety, Netflix is set to release “Army of the Dead” on May 14 in approximately 600 theaters in the US, including 200 Cinemark locations. And though AMC and Regal still won’t be showcasing the film, the fact that Zack Snyder’s latest will actually play one of the big chains, with the inclusion of Cinemark, is a huge step for Netflix in its attempt to draw more box office revenue for its features.

“Cinemark is excited to work with Netflix on our first wide release and provide movie lovers the opportunity to see ‘Army of the Dead’ in our theatres across the U.S.,” Justin McDaniel, Cinemark’s senior VP of global content strategy, said. “Zack Snyder fans will love seeing the action in an immersive, cinematic environment with larger-than-life sight and sound technology.”

Spencer Klein, Netflix’s head of distribution, added, “Following the success of our limited-run in-theatre tests with Cinemark for films like ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ ‘The Midnight Sky’ and ‘The Christmas Chronicles 2,’ we are looking forward to the wider theatrical release of ‘Army of the Dead.’”

Of course, as mentioned by Klein, this is far from the first time that Netflix has shown films in theaters. Typically, especially during awards season, the company will have a short run in limited release for its big contenders. But with “Army of the Dead,” Netflix is hoping to capitalize on the lack of major features in theaters and the willingness of cinemas to showcase a film, even if it is only one week before it hits the streaming platform.

You have to imagine that a large part of this change comes from WarnerMedia making deals with theater chains to showcase all of Warner Bros.’ 2021 film slate in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously. Controversial at first, that decision has shown that HBO Max is able to draw more viewers while films like “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Mortal Kombat” are still able to bring people to cinemas. We’ll just have to see how it works out for Netflix and “Army of the Dead.”

Again, “Army of the Dead” will hit select theaters on May 14 before arriving on Netflix on May 21.