‘Nobody Got Compensated’: Road House Director Revives Criticism Over Amazon Shifting From Theatrical Release To Streaming Only

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Amazon’s Road House remake was a huge hit on streaming earlier this year, becoming Prime’s biggest original ever. The success has begged the question about how the action movie might have weathered if it came out in theaters instead, especially following its director Doug Liman putting Amazon on blast for not bringing it to the big screen just prior to the release. Months later, Liman has more thoughts to share about the Jake Gyllenhaal-led movie going straight to streaming.

As Liman promotes his latest movie, The Instigators, which stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as thieves on the run, the director revisited his thoughts on the Road House release and revealed more information about how the streaming studio handled things. In his words:

First of all, I have no issue with streaming. We need streaming movies cause, we need writers to go to work and directors to go to work and actors to go to work and not every movie should be in a movie theater. So I’m a big advocate of TV series, of streaming movies, of theatrical movies, we should have it all. 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.

In an interview with IndieWire, Doug Liman spoke about himself and the other filmmakers and stars of Road House not being compensated on the backend for the movie’s massive success on Amazon Prime. Per his comments, the studio took all the earnings from the millions who viewed the action movie rather than sharing it with those who made the movie possible through their producing, writing, directing and acting.

Additionally, if Road House was a hit in movie theaters, it would have also provided a cut to these theaters as well, along with the collective experience of audiences seeing the remake of the classic ‘80s movie. When Liman originally spoke up about his disappointment about Road House, he claimed that when the deal for the movie was first created, he made it with MGM with the intention of filming it for theaters. However, when Amazon bought out MGM just months before Road House was set to start filming, allegedly the company told Liman to “make a great film” and they’d “see what happens” regarding the release.

Liman also previously shared that Road House tested super high with audiences, too, beating out his early ‘00s box office hit Mr. and Mrs. Smith, along with The Bourne Identity. That proved to be true considering all the positive audience reactions, including CinemaBlend’s Road House review giving the movie 4 out of 5 stars. He also noted the major following UFC’s Conor McGregor could have sent to theaters as well.

Liman’s latest movie is set to hit theaters for a week (August 2) before heading to Apple TV+ subscribers on August 9. Here’s how he compared his experience with Apple and Amazon:

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.

Doug Liman will not be throwing hands for The Instigators’ release, which he credits to working with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s production company, and who allowed his “rebellious” nature to shine through when making the film. Check out the Apple original starting this weekend.