The biggest new Christmas movie of the year is coming to a living room near you, and it’s arriving sooner than you might have expected it. Amazon’s Red One, which stars Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, has made more than $160 million at the global box office, which is far below its hefty price tag but well above what it would’ve made as a streaming exclusive ($0). Now that it’s had a few weeks on the big screen, Red One is preparing to land on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service.
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On Monday, Amazon announced the streaming premiere of Red One, which is taking place in just a couple of days. The holiday action-comedy will be hitting Prime Video on Thursday, December 12th, giving everyone plenty of time to check it out in the lead-up to Christmas. In fact, there will be nearly two weeks between Red One‘s streaming debut and the arrival of Christmas, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to check it out.
The streaming premiere for Red One arrives almost one month after it was first released in theaters around the world. That gave fans who wanted to see the film on the big screen a great chance to check it out that way before it came to streaming. While Amazon has insisted on streaming releases for some movies (like Road House), it has utilized theaters for other projects. Red One‘s theatrical release comes on the heels of films like Air and Challengers, which both had lengthy big screen runs.
Unfortunately, Red One also represents the issue facing holiday films in recent years. While holiday and Christmas movies used to be more common success stories at the box office, a lot of the mid-budget holiday fare has gone directly to streaming. The only other major holiday release this year is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, from Lionsgate, which is very modestly budgeted and has already made $35 million at the box office. It isn’t reaching the heights of Home Alone or The Santa Clause, but it’s already earned itself a ton of fans and won’t be losing money. Red One only made it to theaters because of its expensive budget and enormous star power.
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Johnson stars in Red One as Callum Drift, the head of the E.L.F. Task Force that are tasked with finding Santa after he’s taken. Evans plays Jake O’Malley, a legendary tracker and “Level Four Naughty Lister” who is force to help Drift and his team in their mission. The film also stars Lucy Liu as Zoe, who recruits Jack for the mission, and J.K. Simmons, who plays St. Nicholas himself.
Red One was directed by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle helmer Jake Kasdan, with a script from Fast & Furious scribe Chris Morgan.
