Street house : A theatrical film limited to streaming
On Thursday, January 25, Prime Video revealed the trailer for Street house, remake of the 1989 film starring Patrick Swayze. A promotional video that makes you want to, with a Jake Gyllenhaal with an impressive physique. In this film, the actor plays a former UFC fighter who becomes a bar bouncer and will have some mandates to give. While the feature film will be released on March 21st on the streaming platform, some regret not being able to discover it on the big screen. Starting with the director Doug Limanwho recently opened up about his film.
Originally, Street house was supposed to have a theatrical release. But Variety recently revealed a change in strategy by Amazon Studios and Jennifer Salke, the head of the company. Learning of this, Doug Liman and Jake Gyllenhaal left on Jeff Bezos’ yacht, head of Amazon, to show him the film and try to convince him to release it in theaters. Unfortunately, the final decision fell to Jennifer Salke, who did not change her position.
As a result, Doug Liman decided to say everything you think about the company in an interview given to Expiration. And the least we can say is that the director doesn’t use the language of wood. First announcing his refusal to come and present the film at the SXSW festival, the director explains that he would have liked “silently protesting Amazon’s decision to stream a film meant for the big screenThen, he thought it appropriate to clearly explain his thoughts:
Amazon isn’t just hurting me and my film. If I don’t talk about Amazon, who will?
Doug Liman unpacks it all
Doug Liman then provides details of the initial agreement on this matter Street house. He says he signed for make a theatrical film for MGM. Then there was Amazon’s acquisition of the company. The platform then announced that it wanted to invest one billion dollars in films intended for cinemas, with the aim of release at least twelve per year. Except that Doug Liman believes that the promises made to him have not been respected.
They boasted that they were “an Internet company’s largest commitment to movie theaters.” I can tell you what they did to me and my film Road House, which is the opposite of what they promised when they took over MGM. (…) Amazon told me to make a big film and we’ll see what happens. I made a fantastic film.
According to the director, Amazon was very excited about it Street housecalling him”great success“Moreover, the film’s feedback during test screenings was excellent, better than its biggest hit, Mr. and Mrs. SmithAND The memory in the skin, which spawned four sequels, he recalls. They add to this UFC fans (MMA legend Conor McGregor has a role in the film), who have reportedly expressed their interest in the film en masse.
Road House is heavily tied to the UFC, which has a rabid and loyal fan base that has generated over 1.5 billion social media impressions for the film, and marketing hasn’t even started!
“Amazon is not interested in cinemas”
After presenting his arguments in favor of his work, Doug Liman openly criticizes Amazon claiming that the company has no interest in movie theaters, that it has no intention of supporting them, and that the release of films only serves to sell household appliances.
Amazon asked me to trust them and their public statements about supporting movie theaters, and now they turn around and use Road House to sell plumbing fixtures.
The consequences of this stance by Amazon would therefore be multiple. First of all from a financial point of view, the people involved Street house they will not be able to receive box office bonuses, as happens with cinema releases. Then, mention Doug Liman the lack of possible recognition for Jake Gyllenhaal“who gets the best performance of his career“, and who therefore finds himself deprived of possible rewards. Finally, the filmmaker states that this type of decision will have a detrimental impact on the sector for the next few years.
If we don’t put successful films in theaters, there will be no more movie theaters. Movies like Road House, people really want to see them on the big screen, and they were made for the big screen. Without movie theaters we will not have the commercial success at the box office, which is the locomotive that allows studios to take risks with original films and new directors. Without movie theaters, we will have no movie stars.
Are the algorithms to blame?
The issue of cinemas has been discussed more and more recently. Last summer, Tom Cruise expressed his desire to reboot the machine pushing people into rooms. And he was happy to see the success of his competitors Oppenheimer AND Barbie. Doug Liman takes the lead from the star of Top Gun and on Christopher Nolan, who”proved that the audience is still there“.
The director of Street house however, he specifies that this is not the case not totally against streaming, remembering that he had already worked. But she raises the alarm that compromises can be found. Especially because, according to him, the data shows that films perform better on platforms when they are first released in theaters. And the filmmaker ultimately ends up not wanting to directly attack the decision makers, believing that perhaps they are too victims of a system
In fact, there may not be a human villain in this story. It’s probably Amazon’s algorithm that decides this. They will sell more toasters by having more subscribers, and the easiest way to increase subscribers is not to compete with movie theaters. Except that a computer could just as well conclude that the simplest way to solve the problem of global warming would be to kill all humans! But a computer doesn’t experience a room full of laughter and crying in the dark. And if Amazon continues like this, the next audience won’t know either.
Street house is still scheduled to stream on Prime Video on March 21.
Source: Cine Serie
Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.
