With the testosterone-laden Road House remake, Amazon Prime has landed one of the biggest streaming films of the year. However, director Doug Liman is only partially happy about the success
Not only Netflix has big streaming blockbusters on the way this year. Amazon Prime is also coming up with exciting productions that reach an audience of millions with a click. It is precisely this fact that is now causing trouble: director Doug Liman feels cheated by Amazon in view of the success of his new film.
Road House was launched on Amazon Prime in March and quickly became the streamer’s most successful original film. The remake of the 80s action classic generated 50 million views in the first two weeks and then climbed to the 80 million mark, as Deadline reported in May.
Amazon release of Road House causes trouble: Doug Liman and stars didn’t get a bonus
Amazon immediately gave the green light to a sequel. Liman, on the other hand, had little to gain from the success, as he reveals in a recent interview with IndieWire. Even before the film was released, he was annoyed that Amazon wasn’t bringing the film to theaters. Now he seems even more disgruntled about the whole thing.
Liman says:
My problem with Road House is that we made the movie for MGM to put it in theaters. Everyone got paid like it was going to theaters. Amazon changed the strategy and no one was compensated. […] 50 million people saw Road House. I didn’t get a dime, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t get a dime, [producer] Joel Silver didn’t get a dime. That’s wrong.
You can watch the trailer for Road House here:
Whether a film is released in cinemas or streamed can have a significant impact on the pay of those involved. In the case of a theatrical release, a profit share is often determined if a certain mark is exceeded at the box office. This does not work with streaming, as there is no classic box office result.
This is why streaming salaries are usually higher from the outset in order to compensate for potential profit shares and make the projects attractive to stars. This was obviously not the case with Road House. Based on Liman’s statement, the cast and crew were remunerated in the same way as for a traditional theatrical release. And there was no bonus for the strong performance on Amazon.
