Cinemark and Regal Pass on Imax Screens for Netflix's Cliff Booth Film
Cinemark and Regal will not give their Imax screens to The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, the Netflix film that brings Brad Pitt back as stunt double Cliff Booth. That leaves AMC as the only major theatre chain showing the film in Imax, the large-format screens with a bigger picture and louder sound.
The decision was made public on 3 November 2026. Cinemark chief executive Sean Gamble said on the company's third-quarter earnings call, a regular quarterly briefing for investors, that Cinemark passed because of Netflix's very short release window. The Hollywood Reporter reported his remarks.
The release window is the gap between a film's cinema run and its arrival on streaming. Cliff Booth opens in theatres on 25 November and reaches Netflix on 23 December, about four weeks later. Gamble also said Cinemark did not want to set a precedent with the film, one that could shape how the wider industry handles releases over the longer term.
The stakes are real for the Imax screens. Cliff Booth is the first Netflix film to be released in Imax, and the slot was first meant for Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew. That film has since moved to February, with a seven-week theatrical window before it reaches other platforms. Cinemark is keeping The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on its Imax screens over Thanksgiving, citing strong advance ticket sales.
Netflix's plan for the film has been public for months. In May, The Hollywood Reporter reported a two-week Imax run worldwide, starting on 25 November, the day before Thanksgiving in the United States. Back in February, Gamble had said he was "a bit apprehensive" about believing Netflix's promise of a 45-day window, given how the industry's release patterns were shifting, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film itself has a clear production line. David Fincher is directing, and Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which reported those roles in September. The story is set in 1977, eight years after the events of the first film, per a report from October.
Cinemark's own numbers show a company growing. It reported total revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, up from $857.5 million in the same period of 2025. Those figures give some context for why a chain would weigh a long-running Imax booking so carefully.
What the decision means for audiences is simple. Anyone hoping to see the film in Imax will need to go to an AMC location, and everyone else will watch it at a standard screen or wait for the Netflix release. For the studios and streamers, it is another sign that the gap between cinema and streaming is now a matter of negotiation, screen by screen.
