'Ready Player One' releases in India after hiccups

Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg's latest sci-fi action adventure "Ready Player One", whose release in India was stalled last month, has finally opened in select places in the country.

The Warner Bros Pictures project's worldwide box office collections are nearing $400 million, but it could not get a release in India due to a dispute between exhibitors and distributors.

A well-placed source told IANS that the film's distributors were not willing to give a share of the service charge from the tickets to the exhibitors.

"The dispute is still there, but the film has been released in the country. The film opened in some places on Saturday (April 7) evening, and in some more places on Sunday," the source added.

According to the official Twitter handle of Warner Bros India, "Ready Player One" has released in New Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Lucknow.

However, the film is still not out in the south Indian market, the source said.

IANS tried reaching PVR Cinemas, one of the main film distributors in India, for a comment. But officials remained unavailable.

The film, which features Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn and T.J. Miller, along with Simon Pegg and Oscar winner Mark Rylance, takes audience through the journey of near-future where the population spends most of its time in an interconnected virtual space called as OASIS.

Set in 2045, "Ready Player One" centres on a quest for digital Easter Egg left behind by James Halliday, the creator of virtual reality world - OASIS. When he dies, he releases a video challenging its users to find his egg, which will give the finder his fortune.

--IANS

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