One-time theatrical release Greenland, the Gerard Butler vehicle in which the star must try to save his family from a comet hurtling toward the Earth, is going to skip theaters altogether after moving out of its initial release date.
Greenland is directed by Ric Roman Waugh, who teamed with Butler last year for Angel Has Fallen, and the film reportedly cost a very reasonable — for an action spectacle — $35 million to make. But the tepid arrival of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in North American theaters earlier this month showed that audiences were not ready to return in droves even for a massive epic from a brand-name director.
As a result, other big-ticket films like Wonder Woman 1984, Candyman and Black Widow began moving dates or dropping out of 2020 entirely, with the continuing coronavirus pandemic still putting a major hurt on theatrical exhibition.
Now Greenland has followed suit, although unlike those other films it’s headed straight for digital. With the movie already released in 22 overseas markets over the summer (where it’s earned $45 million to date), distributor STX might have been concerned that waiting too long for a better theatrical release window might have led to the increased the chances of people pirating the movie from overseas sources.
The good news is that you’ll get to see Gerard Butler battle it out with an extinction level comet in the comfort of your own home, although the bad news is that once again, major movie chains like AMC and Regal are losing out on yet another potential box office draw — and another opportunity to pull their business out of the morass it’s in.
