There is a mystery at the heart of Juror #2, the 40th film directed by Clint Eastwood and – given that he is now 94 – quite possibly the final one.
The riddle lies not in the plot, a courtroom thriller which sees family man Nicholas Hoult serving on the jury for a hit-and-run case in which he is uniquely placed to acquit the defendant, because, as the trailer indicates, he actually did it.
Rather, it is the fate of the film itself. Eastwood fans in the UK will have no problem seeing Juror#2, where it’s enjoying a wide release in more than 300 cinemas nationwide. Across the whole of the US, however, it’s screening in fewer than 50 cinemas.
Starting small then rolling out nationwide is a common strategy for movies being positioned as awards contenders. Yet this is not the case for Juror#2, which will not expand its screen number – and does not even feature on Warner Bros’s For Your Consideration website, its portal for Oscar hopefuls.
Stranger still, Warners has said it will not report box office takings for the film – an almost unprecedented move for a theatrical release – and that the film is likely to move to streaming before the month is out.
At the film’s premiere at the AFI festival last week, Eastwood was nowhere to be seen, leaving it to Hoult and co-star Toni Collette to trot up the red carpet and spearhead an audience shout-out to the director: “We love you, Clint!”
His absence led many to the conclusion the nonagenarian was ailing, his health worsened by the sudden death in July of his partner, 61-year-old Christina Sandera, and the arrest in October of his daughter, Francesca, on a domestic assault charge.
Yet a post on his official X account from 15 October shows the film-maker grinning in a leather jacket and, according to the caption, “returning to work, reviewing scripts in his Malpaso [o]ffices”.
The Guardian has contacted Warners and representatives of Eastwood for comment.
As well as being consistently prolific, Eastwood’s career has, by-and-large, been profitable both commercially and critically for Warner Bros, with whom he’s worked for six decades. Less than 20 years ago, Million Dollar Baby won best picture, director, actress and supporting actor at the Oscars, as well as taking $216m worldwide.
In 2014, Warners released Eastwood’s highest-grossing film to date: American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper, which made $547m from its $59m budget, and scored six Oscar nominations.
His films since have performed more modestly, but some have been genuine hits – air crash drama Sully made $240m – and none were catastrophic flops. Insiders including film writer Sarah Marrs and Variety’s J Kim Murphy suggest that incoming Warners CEO David Zaslav was dismayed by tepid numbers of Cry Macho, Eastwood’s 2021 neo-western, which made back just half of its $33m budget.
Yet the film was released at a time when many cinemas in the US remained closed and audiences – especially among an older demographic – were hesitant about venturing out to them. A simultaneous streaming release on HBO Max made the decision for wavering punters yet easier.
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A Wall Street Journal interview with Zaslav published the following spring, a month into his tenure, reports that the CEO was scathing to Warners executives over their rationale for greenlighting Cry Macho: they felt “indebted” to Eastwood because of his long relationship with the studio.
Zaslav allegedly responded by saying they didn’t “owe anyone favours” before quoting Jerry Maguire: “It’s not show friends, it’s show business.”
Certainly the circumstances of the release of Juror #2 indicate a frostiness between Warners’ head and one of their prize ponies, who may be being put out to pasture prematurely.
Zaslav is also under pressure from the unexpected flop last month of Joker: Folie à Deux, which cost $200m (plus substantial marketing spend), opened splashily at the Venice film festival, but failed to connect with either critics or audiences – unlike its multi-Oscar-winning billion-dollar predecessor.
The contrasting success of Oppenheimer will also still be stinging: Christopher Nolan called time on his long relationship with the studio in 2021 over their new day-in-date simultaneous streaming strategy, meaning his new film was released instead by Universal Pictures – for whom it made $975m.
Meanwhile, Eastwood is back at work considering his next project as director while also working as producer on a new version of his 1977 film The Gauntlet, starring Tom Cruise and Scarlett Johansson.
The 94-year-old has been denied the opportunity for further Oscars glory with Juror #2. Yet few would bet against him one day making a return to the podium.
