Warner Bros. Killed One of the Best Movies of the Year, Now the Best Song

By Drew Dietsch | Published 1 hour ago

Judge #2 the kind of movie audiences used to arrive before the complete takeover of blockbusters: taut, high-concept, grown-up fun not full of spectacle and bombast. Directed by the iconic Clint Eastwood, the simple yet complex story of a judge caught up in a shocking secret manages to maintain its intensity and drama for less than two hours. It's the kind of movie we took for granted before Marvel changed movie theaters forever.

And that is clearly seen since Warner Bros. having decided to kill Judge #2 before it had a real chance at the box office.

Warner Bros. You are guilty

In the beginning, Judge #2 would go straight to Max, Warner Bros.' streaming service. Soon, fans of the film were confused that the film would not get a wide theatrical release. It has a remarkable ensemble cast, is a polished production, and comes from a director with a storied history with a movie studio. The idea that the film would completely skip theaters was more than unusual.

Then, Warner Bros. he changed their tune and decided to donate Judge #2 the most limited theatrical production in the United States. The movie played in less than fifty theaters in the country and Warner Bros. did not report the earnings. Thankfully, the film got an international theatrical release but that's rarely enough to make much of a dent in the cultural landscape these days.

Now, Judge #2 is headed to Max to air on December 20 and is called The Max Original. Will it be able to get more audiences there instead of in movie theaters? We won't know thanks to Warner Bros., but we can report something that seems obvious: people really like this movie.

Juror #2 Hits Hard, No Thanks to Warner Bros.

Judge #2 was released on the iTunes video-on-demand platform and quickly shot to number one. As of this writing, it is still the number one movie on iTunes five days later. The audience was clearly interested in the film and it gave them enough energy to spend their money to rent it. At a time when “I'll wait until it's over on my streaming service” has become a de facto part of many consumers' way of watching movies, seeing a movie like Judge #2 getting such a great response from people who are willing to rent it means something important.

Audiences will always turn up for your next blockbuster with a multi-billion dollar marketing campaign behind it. Everyone agog at success history Barbie it doesn't seem to account for that film's multi-billion dollar marketing budget. A movie like Judge #2 – surely you have been given a small part of BarbieMarketing budget – we were able to cut through the noise of all the other pieces of content vying for your attention. People want to see this movie.

So, good job, Warner Bros., for shooting themselves in the foot again with a widely acclaimed film for adults. I hesitate to give up Judge #2 it will do wonders for your high subscription numbers. Maybe that's the reason we don't get such movies Judge #2 more often than not we have to pay less attention to the audience and include movie studios without knowing what they are doing.

Look Judge #2. It's a great movie that doesn't have to fight to find its audience.