SemiNoTV: New Eastwood Movie Meant for Max All Along

[Mark Jeffries]

In the midst of the criticism over the token release for awards consideration of Clint Eastwood's probably-final film as a director "Juror No. 2" last weekend by Warner Bros., THR now says that the film was intended for being a Max original from the beginning with Eastwood's approval and will be on the streamer over the holidays, although there are still people calling for a full theatrical release:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/clint-eastwood-juror-robert-zemeckis-here-1236053637/bait 

They also said the lack of box office success for adult drama Oscar bait was a factor (played up by the bombing of the Bob Zemeckis/Tom Hanks/Robin Wright film "Here" over the weekend for Sony, although Universal's "Conclave" has been doing very well by indie film standards and will still probably be on Peacock in time for awards season). Also, Warners did not report the box office receipts from the 35-screen token run last weekend (which did not include Chicago), something that Netflix does all the time for their token Oscar bait theatrical runs (Amazon MGM now gives their Oscar bait a full theatrical release and it looks like AppleTV+ will only be releasing theatrically its more commercial features, although one would think an action film with George Clooney and Brad Pitt would qualify).