Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Taps Dec. 11 For The Equalizer 2 And Nov. 27 For Searching

If filmmaker Antoine Fuqua and two-time Oscar-winner Denzel Washington wanted to make Robert McCall of the two hit Equalizer movies an on-going film franchise, all they would have to do is snap their fingers.   

The first Equalizer, in the late September of 2014 pulled in $101.5 million, and the latest, Equalizer 2, has churned up $102 million in box office receipts during its mid-summer theatrical run.   That is franchise level performance.   

With that said, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced this past week that Equalizer 2 will be available as a three-SKU selections of home entertainment product offerings on Dec. 11.   These will be a stand-alone DVD edition, a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack.

The ARR for that Dec. 11 street date is a leisurely 144 days (a little out of character for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) and, as mentioned, the box office haul was right at $102 million.

McCall, a former DIA agent (Defense Intelligence Agency), continues his low profile do-good lifestyle — using only enough force to right wrongs — but when his former partner (played by Melissa Leo) is murdered while on a case … all bets are off!   

As to bonus features, all home entertainment release editions include the featurettes titled “Seconds Till Death: Action Breakdown” and “Through Antoine’s Lens: The Cast.”   Exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD SKUs are 11 deleted and extended scenes, an additional featurette titled “Denzel as McCall: Round 2,” a pop-up trivia track and something called “Retribution Mode” featuring Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua (we think this is a behind-the-scenes featurette).

In other release news from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment this past week, writer/director Aneesh Chaganty’s Sundance Film Festival hit, Searching, was picked up by the studio shortly after its January screening and got a mid-August theatrical and now heads to the home entertainment marketplace on Nov. 27.

Box office receipts were a surprise $25.9 million (for an indie production) and the ARR comes in at 95 days.  Planned for release are DVD and Blu-ray editions.

Jon Cho (perhaps best known to film audiences as the new Sulu in Star Trek: Into Darkness and Star Trek: Beyond) stars as a father driven to desperate measures to find his missing daughter (played by Michelle La) … Debra Messing co-stars as the detective assigned to his case.

Bonus features include commentary from filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty (his feature-film debut), who is joined by producer and co-writer Sev Ohanian, and a trio of featurettes — “Changing the Language of Cinema,” “Update Username: Cast and Characters” and “Searching For Easter Eggs.”