The Whole Industry Is Supporting Paramount

EXCLUSIVE: Tim Richards is CEO of Europe’s largest privately held cinema operator, Vue International, and former Chair of the British Film Institute.

The Canadian-born executive founded Vue almost three decades ago and the chain now operates 220 cinemas and 2,000 screens in eight countries, with the UK its biggest market. Prior to Vue, he worked for multiple studios, including Warner Bros, where for seven years he served as an SVP Business Development. A trained lawyer, Richards has lived in LA, New York, London, Brazil, and Canada, and has Canadian, British and American passports.

In a wide-ranging discussion on the eve of the BAFTAs, we spoke to the cinema vet about the awards season, the WBD sale, Netflix, IMAX, the ’26 box office, and exhibitor innovation. Check out our conversation below.

DEADLINE: We’re coming to the end of the awards race. How do you see it ending up?

TIM RICHARDS: I think Hamnet is going to be the standout film at the BAFTAs, even though there are a couple of others nipping at its heels…

DEADLINE: It has done brilliantly at the UK box office [$23M]…

RICHARDS: Incredible, yes. The success of Hamnet and a film like I, Swear [$8.3M in UK) shows that the market is there for great British and independent films. These were great films, but they were also quintessentially British films. Jesse Buckley is surely the front-runner for the BAFTA and Oscar. Best director is going to be interesting. I think Chloe Zhao has got to be in there, but Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler both have momentum too. I think Robert Aramayo [for I, Swear] has a great chance to win Best Actor at the BAFTAs. It’s an incredible performance. Michael B Jordan and Leonardo DiCaprio are the other two most likely for best actor, I think, and those two are the most likely for the Oscar in that category.

DEADLINE: So you think Robert Aramayo will beat out the Hollywood big guns at the BAFTAs?

RICHARDS: I think he deserves to, I really do. His performance was extraordinary, and he’s been picking up pace, like an outsider coming on strong near the finish. When it comes down to it, I’m hoping that the BAFTA membership will recognize his performance.

DEADLINE: There’s always a debate as to whether BAFTA is British enough and different enough from the Oscars. Where do you stand on that?

RICHARDS: I think BAFTA has come a very long way. Credit to to everyone there right now. Look at the final nominees. There are plenty of Brits in there. Can we do more? Always. But the number of nominations for I, Swear and Hamnet speaks for itself. The latter is more commercial, of course, but neither of those movies are Sinners.

DEADLINE: Do you have a favourite film this season?

RICHARDS: I thought Hamnet was unbelievable. Jesse Buckley was a standout. I loved One Battle After Another. I think the Leonardo DiCaprio role was extraordinary and and I think a dark horse is Sean Penn. I thought Sean Penn was absolutely overlooked. It was an incredible performance.

DEADLINE: You’ll be at the BAFTAs?

RICHARDS: I will. I never miss it. I shouldn’t say it but it’s more fun than the Oscars, more intimate. It’s a very European, British way of celebrating talent. One of the films we acquired for our UK distribution arm Vue Lumière is up for an Oscar and BAFTA: the animated film Little Amélie Or The Character Of Rain. It’s a beautiful film; a classic, hand-drawn animé. I think it has a good chance of winning a BAFTA. It’s the first time we’ve been nominated for one. It has a shot at the Oscar too…

DEADLINE: That’s a very competitive Oscar category with K Pop Demon Hunters and Zootopia 2…

RICHARDS: It’s definitely tougher, yes. Those films had huge commercial success…But I find it very difficult to vote for any Netflix film when those films don’t get a theatrical release. To their credit, both BAFTA and the Academy have tightened the qualification rules. But Netflix are still doing the absolute bare minimum to qualify, regardless of box office success. They do the bare minimum and then the films are instantly pulled off screens. Frankenstein was released for one or two weeks on less than 10% of screens in the UK. Not a single major exhibitor played it. All Quiet on The Western Front was released on around ten screens in ten independent cinemas mostly in London and it won the BAFTA for best film. It’s an incredible film that 90% of our audience were not able to see on the big screen. How can Frankenstein be considered for best film or any other award when 90% of the country wasn’t able to see it on a big screen?

DEADLINE: With that sentiment in mind, I assume you’re hoping Netflix doesn’t win out over Paramount for Warner Bros Discovery?

RICHARDS: I think the entire industry, either publicly or privately, is supporting Paramount, because Netflix has been an outlier. Cinema operators worldwide have tried to work with Netflix for 15 years, unsuccessfully, and it’s been very frustrating. It’s a company that has just discovered in the last three weeks that they want to release movies theatrically, compared to a highly respected filmmaker like David Ellison who has a 15 year track record of producing some absolutely amazing commercial films worldwide. At the end of the day, who do you believe is going to really support our industry going forward: somebody with a 15 year track record, or somebody who’s got a three week track record?

It’s just unfortunate that Warner Brothers is even in this position. It’s an incredible studio. I spent seven years of my life working there. I think how could it have come to this? Last year the company made $4.2BN in box office. It’s not a studio that was really in trouble…

DEADLINE: Coming onto one of their current releases, there seems to be a heated debate online as to whether Wuthering Heights has been a box office success or not. What do you think?

RICHARDS: I think Emerald Fennel has got a very loyal following in the UK from her last two films. Her new film has outperformed where we thought it was going to go for a movie like that [the film took $10.5M on its opening weekend]. The exit surveys we’ve done and the word of mouth is very strong. We’ve even seen repeat viewing in the first four-five days. I think it’s going to have good legs.

DEADLINE: The BFI and UNIC both released data recently that shows that box office in the UK and Europe was relatively flat year-on-year but that admissions have declined and remain significantly below pre-pandemic levels. What’s your take on that data?

RICHARDS: We’ve been on a growth trajectory over the last few years. After Covid, the strikes hit harder and longer than was believed. Production didn’t really start again until late winter/early spring of ’24 so when we were putting our budgets together for ’25, we knew it wasn’t going to be the year it could have been without strikes. This year is going to be a very good year. We’ve done more in the first six weeks of this year than we did in the first two months of last year. The summer is shaping up to be one of or the highest-grossing summers ever. The number of movies on the slate is the difference; we just needed more movies. This year already has a lot of breakout films and there are plenty more to come.

So, we’re confident. But it’s also the commitment from out partners at the studios to production and theatrical. Paramount was releasing seven major theatrical movies a year. Now they’re saying they’re going to release 15 movies this year. There’s a revamped Amazon MGM, which is opening up distribution offices around the world with my fellow Brit Helen Moss. They’re also looking at 15 movies this year. I think it’s going to be an exciting few years ahead.

I’ve just returned from LA and meetings with the studios. What’s particularly exciting is how many films are grabbing dates in ’27 and ’28. That’s rare. These are all greenlit films. The industry is back. I personally think the narrative will be quite different — for the better — after the summer. There’s a cloud over the industry right now, unfortunately, because of the uncertainty over the Warner Bros deal, but once that’s settled, the narrative will change dramatically.

The other thing that is happening but which doesn’t get the same level of reporting is the resurgence of local film production across Europe. If you look at the top five films in most European territories last year, there are generally a couple of local films in there.

DEADLINE: In terms of getting people into cinemas, there was a discussion a decade ago in the UK about reducing ticket prices for British or low-budget films as an incentive. Is that discussion over?

RICHARDS: I don’t think there has ever been any merit to it. If we dropped our ticket prices down to zero, if it’s not a movie that somebody wants to see, they will not come to see it. I think the suggestion was always a red herring. Marketing, promoting, providing a great cinema experience has always been more important. In the last 18 months, we’ve installed almost 40,000 leather recliner seats. We put in leather, not plastic, like our competitors do. They’re more comfortable and they’re longer lasting. We’re putting in 200 a day of our new Ultra Lux seats with an integrated champagne cooler, a blanket and a pillow cushion…

Something that I think will be an absolute game-changer — I genuinely believe this as being the future of cinema — is something we’ve rolled out in a few UK venues: Vue Your Way. These are full self-service snack, drink, and ticketing areas. We got rid of our concession stand completely to eliminate queueing, and we opened up the foyer where we have a range of options, including healthy food such as protein bars and shakes, as well as hot food and standard concessions. We have big barcodes on every product, with vertical and horizontal scanners, so within 30 seconds, you’ve got what you want and you’re gone. We’re hoping to roll out facial recognition technology [for payments] next year. It means our staff can spend more time front of house with customers. At those venues, we’ve seen a positive impact on concession spend and also a significant uptick in attendance.

We also have our Epic Screens…

DEADLINE: That’s your rival offering to IMAX…

RICHARDS: It’s not a rival because it’s 18 month-old technology, compared to 15 year-old technology. Forbes Magazine recently had an article in which they ranked the large format experience in terms of screen quality and technology and we were rated number one, Dolby was second and IMAX were fourth. Unfortunately, IMAX isn’t the company I grew up with. It’s a marketing company right now, and not a technology-driven company like it used to be. When you look at the quality and the performance of the new systems, they are significantly ahead. Dolby is significantly ahead, qualitatively, of IMAX, both in sight and sound, and we are one level above that.

DEADLINE: You’ve also been unhappy about IMAX’s two week exclusive theatrical deal to show Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Netflix movie, Narnia…

RICHARDS: It feels like they’re throwing the cinema industry under the train by doing that. As a filmmaker, particularly a filmmaker like Greta Gerwig, it must be very frustrating to know that her new release is going to be on less than 1% of screens worldwide for a very short period of time. That’s why I think Netflix are a kind of last resort for filmmakers, because of the lack of a proper theatrical release…

DEADLINE: That’s a very lucrative last resort…

RICHARDS: Look, it is difficult for filmmakers right now. But I do think that filmmakers that have genuine clout, the real A-list, are putting it in their contracts that they want a theatrical release for their film…

DEADLINE: Disagreements are usually resolved through dialogue. What kind of communication do you have with Netflix? Do you ever sit down with them?

RICHARDS: We’ve been trying…Look, I think Ted Sarandos has done an incredible job and has built an unbelievable company, a $50BN company by revenue. He deserves a huge amount of credit for that. It is a very different business model than any of the other studios. It’s in home entertainment. The frustration comes when they’ve got great movies that we’d love to have on our screens. Glass Onion, Matilda: The Musical, All Quiet On The Western Front, these are great movies that Netflix have made. The frustration is in the inflexibility. Paramount, Amazon, other tech companies, they’ve been flexible…

We’ve tried dialogue with Netflix for years and years. They have their model and they won’t deviate from it. The biggest single issue is the theatrical release window. I’ve been in the business 35 years. I know that exhibitors worldwide have been guilty of being inflexible at times. But the only good thing that came of the pandemic was studios realising that their day and date release model didn’t work. It cost them hundreds of millions. We have a new model which is a 45 day window that almost the whole industry is happy with. We went from six months to four months to 45 days. We were hoping that Netflix might abide by that too, but they haven’t. The fact that you have someone as respected as Scott Stuber [Netflix’s former film chief] who feels he has to leave in part because of his frustration over the lack of theatrical releases, that speaks for itself…

DEADLINE: In terms of the theatrical push, just to come back to your distribution label Vue Lumière, how many movies do you release per year?

RICHARDS: We’ll be releasing 10 to 15 movies this year in the UK. Those have different models. Our goal is to open it up in all of our markets, so we can take the best of our Italian movies, for example, and release them in Germany and Poland, for example.

DEADLINE: We recently reported on a dispute you had with Coca-Cola over an unpaid bill. They issued Vue with a “winding-up petition,” which in the UK is often the last resort taken by a creditor when attempting to recover debt and can be a precursor to closure. What did you make of that…

RICHARDS: After a great 24 year relationship, Coca-Cola filed a winding up petition despite us having cash reserves well north of £100M. And that was all over a £40,000 dispute. We were in discussion with them when they took that action but we paid it. In doing so, they ended up owing us £100,000, which they’re now paying us. But that whole thing should never have happened. I think it was an outrageous display of aggression that was not how you should be treating a partner.

DEADLINE: This came when you changed your supplier to Pepsi after a 24 year-run with Coke, right?

RICHARDS: It was probably the worst case of sour grapes I’ve ever seen….

DEADLINE: Some people are very passionate when it comes to coke vs Pepsi. We saw it in our comments section…

RICHARDS: The business impact has been neutral across our territories.

DEADLINE: Finally, there was a report recently that former Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger could be making a comeback to the UK exhibition space via a bid on the Paramount-owned Showcase cinemas. What do you make of that?

RICHARDS: I welcome Mooky’s return. Mooky’s main problem was the pandemic, not with anything that he did. The same things happened to a lot of exhibitors. You wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy — your business being closed for almost two years. It was extremely difficult. Mooky, unfortunately, struggled more than others because of the size and scale of the company. But Mooky is a great businessman, and I miss having him in the industry. So, I hope he’s successful.