Warner Bros. is releasing Ben Affleck's The Way Back On-Demand early next week due to the coronavirus outbreak. Directed by Gavin O'Connor (who also teamed up with Affleck on The Accountant), the film stars Affleck as a former high school basketball star struggling with alcoholism who takes up a job coaching at his alma meter. The movie has been generally well-received, with critics praising Affleck's performance while noting the obvious parallels to his much-publicized personal struggles in the real world. It opened to modest, but slightly higher than expected, box office returns earlier this month, buoyed by equally positive word of mouth among moviegoers.
Of course, like every other film playing in theaters, The Way Back suffered a massive drop-off this past weekend due to the spread of COVID-19. In response to the situation, studios like Universal and Sony have announced they will make their current releases available to watch at home On-Demand as early as today. WB similarly moved up Birds of Prey's home release to next Tuesday, and has now officially done the same for The Way Back.
Variety is reporting The Way Back will be available to watch On-Demand for $19.99 beginning on March 24. Warner Bros. Pictures Group Chairman Toby Emmerich issued a statement about the news, which you can read below.
“With audiences largely unable to view films in theatrical release under current circumstances, we have decided to provide the alternative of early digital ownership of our currently released titles to people looking for great entertainment options. So, while we remain big fans of the theatrical experience and hope audiences are able to return to cinemas in the near future, we understand that these are challenging times and offering this option simply makes sense.”
With an overwhelming number of theaters across the U.S. having closed down over the past week, that means wide releases like The Way Back have been unavailable for anyone to watch in recent days. For that reason, the decision to release it early On-Demand for a no-brainer for WB, especially after Sony announced it would be doing the same for Vin Diesel's Bloodshot on Wednesday. With many speculating this could mark the beginning of a shift in the ways studios distribute their films, NATO issued a statement on Tuesday saying the expectation is for things to go back to normal once it's deemed safe for theaters to open again. The statements issued by executives like Emmerich and Sony chairman Tom Rothman have offered similar assurances, saying they intend to continue releasing the vast majority of their movies in theaters first once the coronavirus situation is under control.
By this point, Disney and Pixar's Onward is the only major wide release that opened in March but hasn't been announced for an early VOD launch next week. In general, the Mouse House has been slower than other studios when it comes to announcing changes to their release slate because of the coronavirus, and it's possible (even likely) they're trying to decide what the best option would be when it comes to making Onward available to watch at home before it streams on Disney+. The film had only just begun its theatrical run when the COVID-19 outbreak took a turn for the worse, so its situation is different from those for Frozen II and Rise of Skywalker (both of which got an early home release last weekend). In the meantime, those who're social distancing and looking for additional viewing options can decide if they want to give The Way Back a shot in the coming days.
UPDATE: Disney has announced Pixar's Onward will become available digitally starting tonight, ahead of its release on Disney+ next month.
Source: Variety