Hundreds of German cinemas refuse to show Avengers: Age of Ultron
686 theatres in mostly small towns are boycotting the movie in dispute over rental fees
Several hundred movie theaters in Germany have refused to screen the new "Avengers" film in a dispute over rental fees with Disney.
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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 per cent of ticket sales rather than the 47.7 per cent 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.
The first Avengers took in a whopping $1.5 billion US in 2012, making it the third highest-grossing film of all-time.
The highly anticipated sequel, starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth, opens in North America on May 1.
With files from CBC News