Disney honks off theater owners with Bolt preview

While the extended clip-as promotional video tactic has risen in popularity online, the idea is apparently less popular among theater owners.

Owners pushed back at Disney over a six-minute clip of their upcoming animated feature Bolt the studio attached to Beverly Hills Chihuahua when it opened a couple weeks ago. While Disney thought the clip was more of the “featurette” variety, theater owners saw it as simply a promotional play.

Their problem was that the six-minute clip was in their view strictly a promotion. And that promotion, they felt, added to the running time of the actual feature. In addition to that they felt like the extended sequence ate into the time they could have otherwise sold to advertisers.

Part of the reason Disney viewed this as a featurette was that trailers are not supposed to run over 2:30 according to MPAA rules.

Disney reportedly later apologized to owners for the move.