What's The Story With Director Clint Eastwood's Juror #2 And Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment's No-Frills Blu-ray And DVD Rollout On Feb. 4?

Clint Eastwood and Warner Bros. have been in something of a filmmaking and distribution partnership for going on fifty years.    The auteur filmmaker of legend, Clint Eastwood, who learned the trade from his mentor director Don Siegel — on time, under budget and commercial — delivered the studio hit after hit over the years.

So it came as something of a surprise when his latest film, Juror No. 2, was delegated to made-for-cable status.   What?  An Eastwood film ... stream-able, but not theatrical!!

When the word got out that Juror No. 2 was being sacrificed to the streaming pit of doom on MAX, the blog-o-sphere erupted in amazement … as a result of the blowback, the studio reluctantly found something like 38 screens to release the film theatrically (limited) on Nov. 1 (in the “dead zone” before the Thanksgiving rollout of Oscar-contenders).   

Those who were lucky enough to catch the film theatrically gave it a 90% rating (Rotten Tomatoes) and an amalgamation of critics agreed with an average 94% rating.   In other words, Juror No. 2 is commercial (Eastwood hasn’t lost his touch despite being 94 years old … and of course Juror No. 2 was on time (debuting at the AFI Fest) and likely under budget (the Don Siegel school of filmmaking).

It’s not for us, mere mortals, to question the studio’s decision, just to report on what took place.

The physical media launch will be on Feb. 4 as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings (no 4K Ultra HD in the mix at this time).   

For the record, the ARR works out to 95 days and the estimated box office take from the film’s limited run is $270,000 (Warner has declined to provide box office totals).

The VOD window is Dec. 3, which means that the “Helper” community gets nine full weeks to distribute their own Blu-ray editions as a result of the quick streaming window (the format of choice by pirates for its capacity … HD has nothing to do with it).

As to bonus features for the physical media launch on Feb. 4 from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment … nothing.   No making-of featurette, no behind-the-scenes, no commentary, deleted scenes nada … just the movie!