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Doug Liman boycotting ‘Road House’ premiere in “silent protest” at Amazon

Thu 25 January 2024 9:36, UK

Director Doug Liman has shared his disappointment at his upcoming remake of Road House being denied a theatrical release.

The reinvention of Patrick Swayze’s 1989 cult classic has been in the works for over a decade, with Liman signing on for the project in 2021. However, when studio MGM was acquired by Amazon, the new regime decided the film would be better off airing exclusively on Prime Video.

Scheduled for release on March 24th, Road House will hold its world premiere as the opening night screening of the upcoming SXSW Festival in Austin, but Liman won’t be in attendance.

In an editorial for Deadline, Liman said Road House is “fantastic, maybe my best”, but he plans to “silently protest Amazon’s decision to stream a movie so clearly made for the big screen”. Liman notes the company’s commitment to releasing at least 12 movies a year in cinemas, before referring to the Road House situation as “the opposite of what they promised when they took over MGM”.

Liman “signed up to make a theatrical motion picture”, which isn’t happening. Offering that Road House “tested higher than my biggest box office hit, Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and The Bourne Identity, “which spawned four sequels”, he additionally touts “over 1.5 billion social media impressions” thanks partly to its strong ties to the UFC, with Connor McGregor making his acting debut in the film.

According to Liman, “Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas”. Not only that, but they “asked me and the film community to trust them and their public statements about supporting cinemas, and then they turned around and are using Road House to sell plumbing fixtures.”

While Liman makes it clear he isn’t inherently opposed to streaming or making movies exclusively for that format, he did float the possibility of taking Road House away from Amazon, only to be denied. As a result, regardless of his confidence in the finished feature, he won’t be supporting it publicly.

Watch the trailer for Road House below.