“Coming 2 America” is now coming to…Amazon. And if you listen closely, you can hear another collective, exhausted sigh of theater owners around the world.
According to Variety, Amazon is now in the process of negotiating the final details with Paramount to bring the highly-anticipated comedy sequel, “Coming 2 America” to Prime Video in December. The deal, when everything is said and done, is reportedly going to worth roughly $125 million and would likely include the transfer of marketing tie-in deals with McDonalds and whiskey brand Crown Royal.
“Coming 2 America” is a sequel decades in the making. Continuing the story of the classic ‘80s hit film starring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, ‘Coming 2’ tells the story of King Akeem, who now has to travel back to America to groom his estranged son into becoming his heir and Crown Prince of the nation of Zamunda. In addition to Murphy and Hall, the cast includes Tracy Morgan, Wesley Snipes, Leslie Jones, and Jay Pharaoh. The sequel is directed by Craig Brewer, who previously worked with Murphy on the recent Netflix hit, “Dolemite is My Name.”
And as mentioned above, the film moving from a Christmas theatrical release to Amazon exclusive is yet another painful blow to theater owners around the world that have slowly, but surely seen their fall slate fall apart as studios vacate and move to streaming or delay to 2021. According to the report, Paramount has been looking for a streaming partner for “Coming 2 America” for a bit now and had also talked to CBS All Access about potentially partnering up. However, Amazon has been working hard in recent months to bolster its lineup with pandemic-delayed theatrical releases. This includes “The Lovebirds” back in April, “My Spy” during the summer, and the recently announced “Borat 2,” which is debuting on the streaming platform in a little more than a week from now.
Without “Coming 2 America,” there are only about four major studio films coming to theaters between now and the end of the year, including ‘The Croods 2,’ “Free Guy,” “Death on the Nile,” and “Wonder Woman 1984.” And honestly, over the next couple of weeks, many are predicting news about those films moving out of 2020 also.
If the deal finalizes, “Coming 2 America” should reach Amazon Prime Video on December 18.
