Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky is not screening on any of Ster-Kinekor's 190 screens throughout South Africa after negotiations between UIP/SA and Primedia's Filmco, owners of Ster-Kinekor, the country's biggest exhibitor, broke down.

According to industry insiders, UIP initially wanted an opening week's film rental of 65% to which Ster-Kinekor offered 40% (the industry standard). UIP then reduced the terms to 55% but Ster-Kinekor refused to go higher than 50% and as a result UIP has released all 56 prints of the film on Nu Metro screens .

Ster-Kinekor's CEO Ferdi Gazendam told Screendaily, "During the negotiation process for Vanilla Sky agreement on equitable film rental rates could not be reached. Rentals are already subjected to huge upward pressure due to the Rand/Dollar exchange rate and our forecast for this movie's performance indicated that the requested price for Vanilla Sky to be unrealistic. Our projected forecast indicates that the movie will, in our opinion, simply not deliver in accordance with the rates demanded by UIP. Had we agreed to screen the film at those rates, it would definitely lead to increases in ticket prices, which we believe is not viable. Ster-Kinekor believes it is irresponsible to demand further price increases on the already cash strapped South African consumer."