Highway Home director Doug Liman says he and Jake Gyllenhaal have been amongst those that didn’t get correct pay when the film went to streaming.
Highway Home was a roundhouse on streaming, taking in 50 million viewers worldwide on Amazon Prime. Now, think about if all of these folks went to see it within the theaters and also you’d have one of many largest R-rated films of the 12 months. And that’s actually the way it ought to have turned out, as director Doug Liman all the time figured it could be going to the cinema. However Liman’s continued disagreement over MGM bypassing a theatrical launch for Highway Home doesn’t simply stay due to that – it additionally comes right down to cash in his personal pocket.
As Doug Liman instructed IndieWire, by placing Highway Home on Amazon Prime, the studio screwed himself and plenty of different key gamers – together with star Jake Gyllenhaal – out of correct monetary compensation. “My issue on Road House is that we made the movie for MGM to be in theaters, everyone was paid as if it was going to be in theaters, 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.”
Whereas the contractual stipulations for Highway Home aren’t precisely identified, it’s fairly potential that Liman, Gyllenhaal, Silver, and possibly much more anticipated to make some additional money from the backend that will have come by way of a share of ticket gross sales. With no ticket gross sales on Amazon Prime, that leaves much less cash to dole out to the creatives. Gyllenhaal has taken a unique stance on the problem, nevertheless, saying “Amazon was always clear” the place the film would find yourself. No matter the place they’re each coming from, Gyllenhaal and even Liman are set to return for a sequel – presumably with extra clear stipulations.
Curiously, Doug Liman’s The Instigators premieres on Apple TV+ this weekend, though he has been far more copacetic with that streamer, because the heist film was all the time supposed to be housed there. “In the case of Apple, right from the beginning, we said we’re making this for streaming, our contracts compensated streaming, we’re all compensated for it being on streaming — there’s something called a streaming buyout — so Apple has been above-board from the beginning.”
Who do you assume is at fault within the Highway Home theatrical vs. streaming debacle? Do you assume it could have fared nicely on the massive display?
