You may remember Masters of the Universe came out in theaters in June without really making much of a splash but blew up when it landed on Prime Video. According to director Travis Knight, that was intentional on the studio’s part, and it’s not something he totally agrees with.
While talking about his latest flick, Wildwood, with the Hollywood Reporter, Knight said he didn’t entirely get why Amazon was more focused on Masters‘ future viewership numbers.
“Its life on streaming was much more important to Amazon than its life in the theaters,” he said. “It’s not something I understood going into it. I wanted their faith in us as filmmakers and in the movie to be rewarded in a way that wasn’t to my hopes and expectations.”
Though he’s since accepted the outcome, Knight still thinks Masters of the Universe “deserved a better fate than it got.” Theatrically, it made $113 million worldwide, but again, its streaming numbers were pretty big in July. Within a week of hitting Prime Video, it had 1.17 billion minutes worth of view time, making it the most-watched media in that period. Amazon insiders told THR that the studio considers “the complementary value of theatrical and streaming” when it’s time to greenlight projects.
Still, the company’s been open before about how movies like Masters and Red One could perform better on the small screen. In that sense, Knight may have a point—what was stopping Masters of the Universe from launching on streaming, particularly when a franchise could be born on either big or small screens these days?
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