Legendary actress Helen Mirren has lambasted streaming website Netflix at a CinemaCon, for killing the "cinema" experience.
"I love Netflix, but f*** Netflix!" Mirren cheered onstage at CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie exhibitors, on Tuesday. She was met with thunderous applause while talking about her new film "The Good Liar" at the Warner Bros. presentation, reports variety.com.
Mirren continued saying: "There is nothing like sitting in the cinema."
Her comments come at a time of high tension between theatrical release institutions and streaming companies, who do not wish to put their movies exclusively in theatres before making them available to their subscribers.
Earlier in the day at CinemaCon, held at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino, leadership from the National Association of Theatre Owners and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) fielded numerous questions about the streamer, and raised the years-old debate about trimming the amount of time all films run in theatres before heading to other platforms like online streaming and video on demand (VOD).
This is not the first time Netflix has been slammed on stage.
In 2017, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group Chairman, Tom Rothman, joked, "Netflix my a**!" after a stunning presentation of footage from Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049".