AMC has pulled an AI movie from theaters after the project was met with backlash online, but the company claimed it wasn’t responsible for allowing it to be shown in its theaters.
AI-generated movies have cast a long shadow over the future of Hollywood in recent years, particularly when short clips of AI footage periodically go viral. Matthew McConaughey even predicted that AI will eventually “infilitrate” the Oscars.
It’s not exactly a new topic of debate, but things heated up recently when an AI-generated fight scene featuring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise caused a divide online. The Motion Picture Association sent a cease and desist order to Bytedance over its Seedance tool which generated the clip.
Now, AMC theaters has seemingly made its stance clear on AI movies after pulling a short film from its theaters.
AMC says it did not approve Thanksgiving Day in its pre-roll advertisements
Igor Alferov’s Thanksgiving Day was set to be shown in AMC theaters during the pre-show adverts, but was met with backlash when the news made its way online. The movie follows an anthropomorphic bear and a platypus in space, and it won at the Frame Forward AI Generated Film Festival in early February.
The prize was having a two-week theatrical run in theaters, but the recoil against the decision on social media pushed AMC to pull the short film completely.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, the company explained that it is not responsible for programming the adverts. The decision to include Thanksgiving Day in the pre-show was made by Screenvision Media, a company which organizes all the adverts ahead of each movie.
The statement reads: “This content is an initiative from Screenvision Media, which manages pre-show advertising for several movie theatre chains in the United States and runs in fewer than 30 percent of AMC’s US locations. AMC was not involved in the creation of the content or the initiative and has informed Screenvision that AMC locations will not participate.”
Screenvision Media was involved in organizing the Frame Forward festival, and it also works with other theater chains to provide pre-show adverts and trailers. It’s not clear if Thanksgiving Day will be shown in other theaters in the US.
In a statement about the making of Thanksgiving Day, Alferov said he used Gemini 3.1 and Nana Banana Pro to create the short film, adding that “AI is not a replacement for creativity, but a powerful ‘exoskeleton’ for the imagination, enabling a single person to build entire worlds.”
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