Odeon boycott Alice, as expected

According to the BBC, Odeon have gone through with their threat to boycott Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland when it's released on 5 March in the UK, Ireland and Italy. Cineworld and Vue, who were also expected to embargo the 3D fantasy movie, have apparently backed down after reaching an unspecified agreement with Disney.

The furor arose because Disney want to cut the cinema-to-DVD release "window" from 17 weeks to 12 weeks in some territories, supposedly in an effort to curb illegal downloads. However, Odeon are worried this would result in a loss of revenue for them if too many people opt to wait for the earlier DVD release. This income is particularly important to companies like Odeon right now, because they've invested heavily in 3D screens and want to recoup costs. So, shorter theatrical runs for popular kid-friendly movies is the last thing they need.