Just as the queen in Lewis Carroll's classic children's tale never made good on her threat to chop off Alice's head, the Odeon theater chain in the U.K. -- the country's largest -- has backed off from its threat to block the screening of Disney's Alice in Wonderland unless Disney changed its plans to release the movie on DVD four weeks earlier than usual. Odeon's reversal came just hours before the movie, produced mostly in the U.K., was scheduled to have its world premiere at the exhibitor's flagship theater in Leicester Square. "An enduring agreement has been reached encompassing all the different aspects of both companies' commercial relationship," Odeon said in a statement, without providing details. Britain's Guardian newspaper said on its website that Odeon's deal with Disney was likely similar to the one signed between Disney and exhibitor Cineworld, in which Disney agreed to the shorter theatrical window for only three films over the next two years. Odeon, the newspaper said, "is understood to have secured a longer and more substantial guarantee from Disney."

25/02/2010