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Road House Fiasco: Jake Gyllenhaal’s Reboot Movie Robbed Of A Theatrical Release; The Director Boycotts Amazon MGM
The conflict around the release schedule of Amazon MGM movie Road House has now intensified with the director of the film openly rebelling against the studios by boycotting the film’s premiere.
The rise of streaming platforms over the last decade or so has been instrumental in altering the whole business landscape in Hollywood. Films today are being released in order to please not just the theater audience but to also drive up the subscriber base of the various streaming platforms.
This has resulted in some films which deserve a theatrical release to be instead released on these streamers exclusively. The latest film that has been a victim of this structure is Doug Liman’s Road House.
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Why is Doug Liman boycotting his own film’s premiere?
The decision taken by Amazon to exclusively release Road House on streaming has caused a seemingly irredeemable rift between the film’s director Doug Liman and the studios behind this production namely Amazon MGM.
In an editorial for Deadline, the Edge of Tomorrow director revealed that he will not be attending the SXSW premiere of his film starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The reason for this decision is the alleged betrayal from Amazon MGM, who are the producers behind this action entertainer.
“My plan had been to silently protest Amazon’s decision to stream a movie so clearly made for the big screen. But Amazon is hurting way more than just me and my film. If I don’t speak up about Amazon, who will?” the director wrote in his editorial for Deadline.
Doug Liman is known for a certain kinetic energy in his films, which make them a big screen experience. His past success like The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Edge of Tomorrow is a proof of this fact. Thus, his plan was to always release Road House in theaters and make it communal experience.
“If we don’t put tentpole movies in movie theaters, there won’t be movie theaters in the future. Movies like Road House, people actually want to see on the big screen, and it was made for the big screen.” The Swingers director wrote in his Deadline piece. “Without movie theaters, we won’t have the commercial box office hits that are the locomotives that allow studios to take gambles on original movies and new directors. Without movie theaters we won’t have movie stars.
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Doug Liman on the importance of theatrical releases for the movie business
With the advent and rapid rise of the streaming industry, there has been a definitive change in the way the general audience consumes cinema today. A certain distinction has set in with a theatrical release and a streaming release having their own separate space.
The pandemic further intensified this gap, which led to a period where many thought that the theatrical industry will slowly die in the coming years, but the last couple of years proved otherwise with the industry suddenly reviving thanks to some huge theatrical releases.
“The fact that we still have movie theaters after the global pandemic didn’t happen by accident. It happened because brave filmmakers like Chris Nolan and Tom Cruise insisted their movies play in the theater, and they proved audiences are still there. They proved that despite everything, we still enjoy gathering and sharing in the communal experience of watching a film together.” Doug Liman wrote in his editorial.
The filmmaker who is set to direct the first American film shot in space with Tom Cruise, emphasized the need for a theatrical release repeatedly in his editorial and hoped that the algorithms of these streaming platforms don’t end up deciding the future of Hollywood.
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