EntertainmentRoad House creators left out of Amazon's profit windfall

Road House creators left out of Amazon's profit windfall

"Road House," the new version of the story told in the movie "Road House" from 1989, has become the biggest hit in the history of the Amazon Prime Video platform. However, its creators are frustrated because the streaming giant does not intend to share the profits related to the film's success.

Jake Gyllenhaal in the movie "Road House"
Jake Gyllenhaal in the movie "Road House"
Images source: © Press materials

2 August 2024 10:21

"Road House" made headlines a few weeks before its release on VOD when the film's director, Doug Liman (creator of several box office hits – including "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "The Bourne Identity"), gave an interview in which he claimed that he felt deceived by Amazon. He claimed his bosses promised him that "Road House" would be released in theatres. Ultimately, they made a different decision.

It should be noted that "Road House" was initially conceived as a theatrical release for MGM. Plans changed when Amazon purchased the film studio. The American company apparently decided not to share profits with theatre owners, placing the film directly onto the streaming platform, where it has enjoyed record-breaking viewership.

It now turns out that Amazon also did not share the profits related to the film's success with its creators. "My issue on ‘Road House’ is that we made the movie for MGM to be in theatres, everyone was paid as if it was going to be in theatres, and then Amazon switched it on us, and nobody got compensated. Forget about the effect on the industry — 50 million people saw ‘Road House’ — I didn’t get a cent, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t get a cent, [producer] Joel Silver didn’t get a cent. That’s wrong," Doug Liman told IndieWire.

The director of "Road House" mentioned 50 million viewers in the interview, but it should be noted that this was achieved by the film in just the first 10 days of streaming. The number of people who watched this title could be twice as many. One way or another, "Road House" is considered the biggest hit (among feature films) in the history of Amazon Prime Video.

"First of all, I have no issue with streaming. We need streaming movies cause we need writers to go to work and directors to go to work and actors to go to work, and not every movie should be in a movie theatre. So I’m a big advocate of TV series, of streaming movies, of theatrical movies, we should have it all," concludes Doug Liman.

© Daily Wrap
·

Downloading, reproduction, storage, or any other use of content available on this website—regardless of its nature and form of expression (in particular, but not limited to verbal, verbal-musical, musical, audiovisual, audio, textual, graphic, and the data and information contained therein, databases and the data contained therein) and its form (e.g., literary, journalistic, scientific, cartographic, computer programs, visual arts, photographic)—requires prior and explicit consent from Wirtualna Polska Media Spółka Akcyjna, headquartered in Warsaw, the owner of this website, regardless of the method of exploration and the technique used (manual or automated, including the use of machine learning or artificial intelligence programs). The above restriction does not apply solely to facilitate their search by internet search engines and uses within contractual relations or permitted use as specified by applicable law.Detailed information regarding this notice can be found  here.