News culture Clint Eastwood’s Juror No. 2 is set to be a box office hit… Warner is taking a big risk on one of 2024’s best thrillers
Clint Eastwood’s latest work, released on October 30, deals with a legal case. While the film had an excellent start in France, it nevertheless suffered a very special fate in the United States… It is difficult to understand the strategy of the production company Warner.
Still standing, still great
Juror #2 is the 40th film by 94-year-old Clint Eastwood. The man, weakened by the death of his partner last July, did not attend the premiere of his feature film at the American Film Institute Festival (Los Angeles) at the end of October. Published last Wednesday, Juror #2 has a 91% press rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Depending on this, the budget would increase Widescreenat around $33 million. The plot follows the moods of Justin Kemp, played by Nicholas Hoult (Skins, X-Men), a young man assigned to serve as a juror in a murder case. When the facts are presented to him, the main character begins to doubt: what if he was the culprit?
A sneaky show in the United States
It seemed obvious that one of Clint Eastwood’s latest films would benefit from wide distribution, particularly on American soil. This is not the case: only about fifty American cinemas were broadcasting Juror #2. In comparison Joker: Folie à Deux was shown in more than 4,000 cinemas nationwide. Accordingly diversity, Warner “currently has no plans to expand to other locations in the coming weeks.” A common restriction for independent films, but rare for productions by a big Hollywood name. A strategy that will certainly not help increase registration numbers.
This is a very interesting situation when we know that the work benefits from an approximate projection 300 rooms in England and more than 400 in France. This discreet release in North America would reflect a Warner strategy of releasing the film in a limited number of theaters and relying on word of mouth, then increasing the number of copies distributed and hoping for an Oscar nomination . At the moment the beginning of Juror #2 is above all a success in France, where the film grossed $3.1 million at the box office. In comparison Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom had raised $4.6 million. However, Warner had commented before the release and stated that they did not want to discuss the film’s earnings.
The most likely scenario is this Juror #2 arrive very soon on a streaming platform in the United Stateswhere the media chronology is much less restrictive than in France.
