Alita: Battle Angel Likely Coming Back To Select Theaters After Fan Campaign

A fan campaign to get Alita: Battle Angel back into theaters has apparently achieved its goal, according to a response today from Cinemark Theatres. Last week, we shared an update on the Alita fandom’s push to get its members to target Cinemark in a bid to re-release the cult movie. It now appears that the chain have taken this on board, and we could end up with the 2019 production on the big screen, at least in a limited way.

Likely sensing an opportunity for some positive news in what has been a pretty dire year for theatrical outfits, Cinemark put up the following post today:

While nothing’s been confirmed yet, it’s good to see that the message has been recognized, although the end goal might be less about helping Alita recoup more of its budget, and more about encouraging Disney to invest in a sequel. In any case, Cinemark’s tweet was welcomed on Twitter, as you can see below.

Since acquiring the rights from Fox, Disney’s enthusiasm for making a franchise from the property has been limited, likely due to the financial risks involved. Still, the Cinemark publicity certainly won’t hurt the chances of Alita being resurrected, and comes after a sustained effort to get the Mouse House to at least consider greenlighting a new project. In addition, there’s been some talk of a prequel show coming to Disney Plus, although things have been quiet on the front for a while.

If Alita does get another public run, though, we wouldn’t expect to see it work beyond a small-scale engagement that will hope to draw diehard fans into venues. With open and worrying questions in place for whether the traditional exhibition model can recover after COVID-19, it may even be that an Alita: Battle Angel follow-up will have a more natural home on PVOD. For now, though, we’re looking forward to seeing how far supporters of the original film can go with their campaigns.