‘Juror No. 2’ Could Be Clint Eastwood’s Last Film — So Why Is Warner Bros. Burying It?

28 days ago
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AFI Fest, the longest-running film festival in Los Angeles, will cap off its 38th edition Sunday evening with the world premiere of Clint Eastwood‘s “Juror #2” at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette and Zoey Deutch will walk the red carpet, which marks the festival’s fourth world premiere of an Eastwood-directed feature. The courtroom drama is the filmmaker’s 40th directorial effort — and, given he’s 94 years old, it’s potentially his final one.

Four days later, Warner Bros. will give “Juror #2” a somewhat less distinguished treatment. The studio is putting out the feature in a limited release of less than 50 theaters, according to two sources with knowledge of the film’s distribution, with no current plans to expand to more locations in the following weeks.

While exact location counts are still being finalized, as it stands one week from opening day, “Juror #2” is currently listing showtimes at four locations around New York City, five in the Los Angeles area and one in Chicago. Across the country’s 25 most populous cities, the film is listing pre-sales in fewer than 25 locations. The film’s official website only promotes showtimes in 18 markets. Cineplex, Canada’s leading exhibitor chain, is opening the film in just one theater in Toronto and 160 nationwide venues. While many indies never expand beyond a handful of theaters, it’s less common for releases from major Hollywood studios like Warner Bros. As things currently stand, “Juror #2” will appear in far fewer auditoriums than other awards season releases like “Anora” and “The Brutalist,” which were made on leaner budgets, but will eventually unspool across thousands of screens.

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