After hitting theaters at the end of last month, Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear is already available to buy and rent on digital platforms.
Cocaine Bear is now already available to watch at home, despite only releasing in movie theaters two weeks ago. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear, as the title suggests, tells the story of a black bear who ingests a large amount of cocaine before then going on a murderous rampage through a Georgia forest. The film was released in theaters on February 24, earning mostly positive reviews and performing well at the box office, having now earned over $65 million worldwide on a budget estimated to be around $35 million.
Now, per a listing from Amazon Prime Video, Cocaine Bear is available to digitally rent or buy at home. The movie currently costs $19.99 to rent or $24.99 to buy, matching the price of most other PVOD titles. After Cocaine Bear's impressive box office haul, the movie is seemingly available on all major digital platforms, including Apple TV+ and Vudu.
Cocaine Bear's Digital Release Schedule Is New Normal (For Some Movies)
While Cocaine Bear's two-week theatrical-only window was surprisingly small even by today's standards, it does signal a larger shift within the entertainment industry. The COVID-19 pandemic largely accelerated and exacerbated trends that already existed, with many viewers opting to wait to experience movies from home instead of taking a trip to a movie theater. The theatrical movie industry has largely recovered by this point thanks to big releases like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water, but the release strategy for smaller, mid-budget movies has seemingly been permanently changed.
Gerard Butler's action movie Plane, for example, was released on January 13, doing surprisingly good business in its first few weeks. After only three weeks in theaters, however, the movie became available to rent or buy on digital platforms at home. M3gan, on the other hand, another modestly-budgeted movie, became something of a sensation due to its viral marketing campaign, and subsequently enjoyed a longer theatrical run of about 47 days. Essentially, it seems like studios are tailoring theatrical-only runs on a per-movie basis instead of the blanket windows that existed in the past.
Large releases like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water enjoyed much longer theatrical-only windows because audiences were, by and large, interested in experiencing the grand spectacle of these films on the big screen. Cocaine Bear seems to have mostly won audiences over with its funny premise and shocking violence, but an early PVOD release could actually be a big benefit for this type of film. The first trailer for Cocaine Bear went viral, and it's possible that there is a large number of people who have been waiting to experience the movie at home.
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