Dear Gossips,
One thing I was not looking for this week was more Road House drama, but here we are, it’s Friday, and there is more Road House drama.
The first bit of Road House drama is that the trailer for the remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal came out, and I don’t like it. The second bit of drama is that same day, remake director Doug Liman declared he will not attend the film’s premiere at SXSW next month, where it is the opening night film, because distributor Amazon MGM (thanks, I hate that, too), is “bypassing” a theatrical release for a direct-to-streaming drop in March (thanks to Mikey for sending this along!). The latest drama is a different version of events than those presented by Liman, chiefly that Liman and Jake G chose to “take the money” when offered a bigger budget to make the movie for streaming.
Presumably, this story in Variety is fed by the studio side, and includes details that Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel tried to keep original Road House producer Joel Silver involved in the remake but failed after Silver became “combative” regarding the theatrical release, and that Silver was (allegedly) verbally abusive toward Amazon employees, including the marketing and film bosses, Sue Kroll and Courtenay Valenti, respectively.
Basically, the chain of events is that Doug Liman and Jake Gyllenhaal, along with Joel Silver, were brought into MGM back in 2021, when Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy were running the studio (they’re now running the film division at Warner Bros. Discovery, where they are producing tax write offs). Amazon completed an acquisition of MGM in spring 2022, and that summer, De Luca and Abdy left while Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke “salvaged” the remake. In August of that year, Road House went into production. In 2023, Silver was fired after production was completed. That report from August 2023 does mention that Amazon would “probably” release the film on streaming in 2024, but Silver wanted a theatrical release.
This seems to be another issue spawning from the hyper-conglomeration of the entertainment industry over the last few years. For MGM as an independent studio with no streaming platform, Road House was a mid-budget bet on cinemas. But Amazon has their own streaming platform, so their commitment to theatrical releases is less assured. According to the latest report, they offered Liman et al $60 million to make the move for cinemas, or $85 million to make it for streaming. As the report says, “they all took the money”. But that also means they KNOWINGLY gave up a theatrical release.
I’m not really sure what they expected to happen. Maybe Silver thought he could cajole and/or bully Jennifer Salke into releasing the movie into theaters anyway, perhaps Liman thought that by going “scorched earth” last month, he could shame them into it, using language like “they are using Road House to sell plumbing fixtures” and saying Amazon is “gutting” the theatrical business.
But if the deal really was presented as “this or that”, and they chose “that”, why are they now mad they aren’t getting “this”? Of course, the latest drama could be spin for the studio after Liman’s admittedly harsh words, which do hit on some truths that studios risk hurting their own theatrical business with streaming releases (see also: Pixar and Marvel). But again…if they were offered two options, they had to know what would happen. And this latest story does clear up some questions left by Silver’s ouster last year, which sort of gives credence to the new information that the disagreements, which apparently rose to the level of verbal abuse, stemmed from a clash of wills over the release.
Road House still does not look good, though apparently, it is the highest-testing film of Doug Liman’s career. But it is interesting to me that this drama is now a full-blown he said/she said situation between the filmmakers and the studio, and while I agree Road House should be in cinemas, that’s because data shows even a box office bomb will do better on streaming for having a theatrical release. Forget all the emotional language about supporting theaters—appeal to their business sense. Someone needs to take a PowerPoint around Hollywood showing studio execs that even box office losers do better on streaming, because people have come to associate “direct to streaming” with “direct to video” aka “garbage”. But if a movie has been in theaters, even if it didn’t do well, more people will watch it on streaming because it’s a “real” movie, and maybe they heard this or that about it and now they’ll give it a chance.
Emotional appeals about art and cinema are never going to work on the executive class. Hit them with data, show them what they’re giving up by making it an either/or proposition, and maybe you’ll get through. And also, if you care so much about theaters, maybe take the theatrical deal, even if it means less money up front. You have to be willing to put your money where your mouth is, too.
Live long and gossip,
Sarah
