Ben Affleck’s critically acclaimed period sports drama “Air,” about the genesis of the selling of the Nike Air Jordan shoe, has set a May 12th premiere date on Amazon Prime.
The run on the streamer follows 37 days after the film’s exclusive theatrical release, which began April 5th in the United States. Coming in at a production budget said to be in the range of $70-90 million, this marked an experiment by Amazon to abide by a traditional theatrical window in the post-pandemic era.
The movie scored a wide cinema release in thousand of theatres, was buoyed by rave reviews from critics, and had a well-backed (and costly) promotional campaign with up to $50 million spent on promoting the film’s cinema release – including a $7 million Super Bowl LVII commercial.
It would appear to have been a failure as an experiment, with the film taking in just $47.6 million domestically and $31.4 million overseas for a worldwide total haul of a disappointing $79 million.
The film had been initially planned as a streaming-only release until positive test screenings led to them changing their mind. Arguments will no doubt rage over whether Amazon actually lost money going the theatrical route instead of sticking to streaming only – even if by doing so, it increased the film’s perceived ‘prestige’ in the post-theatrical window.
Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Matthew Maher, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker and Gustaf Skarsgard co-star in the film.
Source: THR
