BERLIN (AP) - Several hundred movie theaters in Germany have refused to screen the new "Avengers" film in a dispute over rental fees with Disney.
News agency dpa reported that 686 theaters in 193 mostly small towns refused to show "Avengers: Age of Ultron," which opened on Thursday. It said the dispute was over a decision to raise the rental fee for the movie to 53 percent of ticket sales rather than the 47.7 percent usually charged to small-town theaters.
Karl-Heinz Meier of I.G. Nord, a group representing cinema operators in northern Germany, said it would have been prepared to go as far as a 50 percent fee. He added: "Disney will have to do without 686 screens on which the film otherwise would have been shown."
Meier says moviegoers have expressed understanding.