Antonio Banderas, left, and Dominic Sessa in a scene from 'Tony.'The Associated Press
Last week, the Imagine Cinemas Carlton multiplex in downtown Toronto went viral after its management announced that the new Anthony Bourdain movie Tony, directed by Canadian Matt Johnson, was being pulled from the theatre by the film’s distributor A24.
In a note to its customers, some of whom had already purchased presale tickets for Tony, Imagine Cinemas cited “antiquated clearing practices” for A24’s decision, going on to decry “the hegemonic theatrical exhibition market share that exists in this country.” The exhibitor then directed any dissatisfied customers to contact the federal Competition Bureau to lodge a complaint about unfair business practices in Canada’s theatrical distribution landscape.
Tony review: This Anthony Bourdain biopic is a movable feast
Yet Tony is not the first title the Carlton, and other theatres across the country, have lost due to clearing practices, or what many in the industry refer to as “zoning.” As defined by the Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE), which Imagine Cinemas is not a member of, zoning is a long-held but sporadically enforced system that dictates which theatres can play which movies in a certain geographical area.
In the case of Tony, the film did not open at the Carlton as initially planned. But it was released in other theatres in the downtown core, including the Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas a few blocks south of the Carlton and the Cineplex Cinemas Varsity a few blocks north.
“The issue has been going on forever. We also had Spider-Man: Brand New Day pulled from the Carlton in the same way earlier last month. We had presales up for it, and it got pulled on the Monday before it opened,” says Stefan Kern, director of operations and exhibition for Imagine Cinemas. “I would say on a weekly basis we run into this problem.”
Dominic Sessa and Emilia Jones in 'Tony.'Seacia Pavao/The Associated Press
According to a 2024 NICE report, 53 per cent of independent Canadian theatres surveyed by the organization reported that they had to wait for the Cineplex venue in their “zone” to finish playing a new release before they were allowed to show it. Forty per cent of those respondents added that the lifting of zones would be “paradigm-shifting” to the health of their businesses.
“Zoning is a system that comes from a time in which 35mm prints would come into a region and there would be a lot of major competing circuits looking to play that print – Famous Players, Cineplex Odeon, AMC, whoever else. So there would be a conversation every Monday between them to decide which cinemas would get which films,” says Sonya William, director of NICE, who adds that there is no available map of defined “zones,” even to exhibitors who are subject to their restrictions.
“The real, practical reason for zones disappeared, especially in the U.S., with the advent of digital projection, when you don’t have to lug those prints around,” says William. “But zones continue in Canada, and where we are seeing the largest benefit is with Cineplex, which has a completely outsized market share. Any distributor who is looking to get people to buy tickets for their movie has to understand that if they want to make a good amount of money, Cineplex has to play that film. It can make for a really unfair industry.”
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Currently, Cineplex operates 152 theatres, which contain 1,595 screens, for a national market share of approximately 75 per cent. In a statement to The Globe and Mail inquiring about zoning, Cineplex’s vice-president of communications Michelle Saba said, “Cineplex does not own the rights to the movies that appear on our screens. We license them from distributors to play in our theatres. It is up to film distributors to decide where they play their films.”
Representatives for Tony distributor A24 declined to comment.
Typically, the U.S.-based A24 has partnered with such independent Canadian distributors as Elevation Pictures and VVS Films to release their titles in this country. But over the past year, A24 has experimented with self-releasing titles in the English-language Canadian market, eschewing local partnerships for the roll-outs of the action thriller Warfare, the romantic comedy Eternity and the animated film Ne Zha 2. (In Quebec, where local distribution is complicated by language and classification regulations, A24 has partnered with the boutique Montreal-based company Maison 4:3.)
While the Carlton has come up against the challenges of zoning for years, Imagine Cinemas only decided to have the issue spill into public view last week because of its customer base’s strong affection for Johnson’s filmography. The Toronto-based director’s other 2026 release, the time-travel comedy Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, played the Carlton for 14 weeks earlier this year, ultimately bringing in $96,590 to make the venue the film’s fourth highest-grossing theatre in North America. (The movie is so popular with the Carlton’s audience that the theatre is bringing it back for an encore run this Friday, even though the film is now available to stream.)
Review: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie deserves as many rewatches as time allows
Notably, Nirvanna – which was not an A24 release, its distribution handled by Elevation in Canada and Neon in the United States – opened at the Carlton the same week it played Cineplex’s nearby Yonge-Dundas location.
“Because of how successful Nirvanna was, it felt like it would make perfect sense for us to take Tony. We wanted to let our audience know that we try our best, and we do our due diligence,” says Imagine Cinemas’ Kern.
“We want people to be as exposed to as many films as they can, and it’s always been a kind of democratic business. It’s accessible to everyone. So when choice is being taken away from people outside of their control, it narrows a moviegoer’s options.”