‘Freaky’ Director Christopher Landon Calls Out Studios For Day-And-Date Releases After ‘Halloween Ends’ Box Office Results

Christopher Landon is resurrecting the day-and-date release topic after initial box office results for Halloween Ends have it coming in under studio estimates. The Freaky director is calling out movie studios for releasing movies in theatres and streaming services at the same time.

“Ooooooh I feel another rant coming on: Today it’s the Day & Date release strategy for Halloween Ends. Stop doing this. Please. It doesn’t work. Studios: stop gambling with filmmakers and their movies to try and prop up your fledgling streaming services,” Landon tweeted.

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Halloween Ends was estimated to finish off its first weekend at $55M with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode potentially facing serial killer Michael Meyers one final time. However, as the box office results were reported, the film is expected to only make $43.4M in theatres.

Landon is attributing the underwhelming results to Universal releasing the movie to Peacock subscribers on the same day as theatres. The film director recalled that he faced a similar situation when Freaky was released in 2020.

“This happened to me on Freaky and it destroyed us. We worked SO HARD to make a fun movie. Blood sweat and tears. Months away from our families. And for what? They love to use the term: ‘two bites of the apple’ but that’s just another way of saying ‘we’re gonna use your movie as a Guinea pig’ for our Streaming service,” he added in a second tweet.

Landon continued, “Sorry. I begged the studio not to do this. Either circle the wagons and protect it for theatrical or just go all in on streaming. Don’t split hairs. At least the Halloween folks were made whole. We got hosed. So yeah…bitter subject. PTSD.”

He ended his rant by directing a note to the studios asking them to “stop trying to suck two d****s at the same time. Honor the sanctity of the theatrical experience.”

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