Hundreds of German cinemas refuse to show Avengers: Age of Ultron

Several hundred movie theaters in Germany have refused to screen the new "Avengers" film in a dispute over rental fees with Disney.

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News agency dpa reported that 686 theaters in 193 mostly small towns refused to show Avengers: Age of Ultron,which opened on Thursday. It said the dispute was over a decision to raise the rental fee for the movie to 53 per cent of ticket sales rather than the 47.7 per cent usually charged to small-town theaters.

Karl-Heinz Meier of I.G. Nord, a group representing cinema operators in northern Germany, said it would have been prepared to go as far as a 50 percent fee. He added: "Disney will have to do without 686 screens on which the film otherwise would have been shown."

Meier says moviegoers have expressed understanding.

The firstAvengerstook in a whopping$1.5 billion US in 2012, making it the third highest-grossing film of all-time.

The highlyanticipated sequel, starringRobert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson andChris Hemsworth, opens in North AmericaonMay 1.