The Grim Reasons Disney Is Selling Amy Adams’ ‘Woman In The Window’ To Netflix

Had Emily Blunt’s The Girl on the Train or Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively’s A Simple Favor been bigger hits, Walt Disney would have likely held onto Amy Adams’ The Woman in the Window.

Deadline reported yesterday that Netflix NFLX is in final talks to the Amy Adams potboiler The Woman in the Window from Walt Disney DIS . The 20th Century Studios thriller, initially intended for release in theaters last year, comes courtesy of Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna, Pan, Darkest Hour) and is based on A.J. Finn’s global best-selling novel, has been delayed and bounced around the release schedule partially due to (allegedly) poor test screenings and reshoots. Fair or not, if the movie had commercial potential or Oscar hopes, I’m guessing Disney would have either kept it for theaters or sent it to Hulu for a “prestige” streaming debut. That they did neither arguably says more about the quality (or perceived quality) of the film as opposed to this “new normal” of big studios selling their movies to streaming platforms.

To be fair, the coronavirus crisis is partially to blame, in terms of both movie studios needing quick revenue with theaters (and, where it applies, theme parks) closed and the next year or two likely being reserved for surefire blockbuster theatrical films. When theaters do reopen in a conventional capacity, there’s going to be a backlog of surefire (or presumably surefire) franchise-friendly hits waiting on deck to take their shot at box office glory. Moreover, at least until there’s a vaccine or viable post-infection treatment, I’d imagine moviegoers would be even less willing to venture out to the movies to see a non-event film than they were before the pandemic. Studios are already fretting over whether moviegoers will show up for Black Widow or Wonder Woman 1984, let alone old-school studio programmers and star vehicles.

That’s partially why Paramount PGRE has sold five movies to one streamer or another, including The Lovebirds (to Netflix), Aaron Sorkin’s awards-friendly (but commercially questionable) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (to Netflix) and Michael B. Jordan’s Without Remorse (to Amazon AMZN ). Of course, Paramount has been hurt most of all by the new normal over the last five years, as IP and marquee characters have replaced movie stars and high-concepts as the only thing getting audiences off the couch and into a theater. Where once the likes of Sony and Paramount thrived via star-driven originals and high-concept flicks (“Tom Cruise as a sports agent, “Will Smith as a benevolent pick-up artist,” “Harrison Ford is an ass-kicking president” or “Adam Sandler adopts a kid”), now audiences only care about established franchises with previously established marquee characters.

Disney has thrived due to this generational shift thanks to its ownership of Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar and a stable of beloved animated features that could be turned into live-action blockbusters. But they have it no easier when it comes to selling “new to you” movies like Tomorrowland, A Wrinkle in Time or Queen of Katwe or comparatively useless IP like The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. The Woman in the Window stars Adams as an agoraphobic child psychologist who spies on her neighbors and (theoretically) witnesses one of them doing violence. Think, offhand, Rear Window meets The Girl on the Train. While Fox’s buzzy Gone Girl earned $366 million global six years ago, Universal’s Girl on the Train earned $173 million in 2016 and Lionsgate’s A Simple Favor earned $98 million in 2018.

All three of those films were, to varying degrees, relatively good. A Simple Favor is especially frustrating as Lionsgate sold the hell out of Paul Feig’s Anna Kendrick/Blake Lively thriller only for the film to earn merely okay box office. It was then “discovered” on Hulu and Amazon by folks who then went on Twitter and complained that nobody told them that the movie existed and/or how good it was. It’s likely, barring rave reviews and/or genuine Oscar attention, that the Scott Rudin/Eli Bush-produced Woman in the Window, from Elizabeth Gabler’s now-shuttered Fox 2000 division, would have suffered a similar ironic fate had it opened in theaters, as did (relatively speaking) most of Fox’s diverse and inclusive 2018 slate (The Hate U Give, Bad Times at the El Royale, The Darkest Minds, Widows, etc.).

On its face, this deal is little different than Sony selling Tom Hanks’ $50 million World War II U-boat thriller Greyhound to Apple AAPL TV for $70 million. Apple got a very buzzy original feature while Sony unloaded a commercially questionable non-tentpole release. Same deal, on a different scale, with Sony unloading Seth Rogen’s American Pickle to HBO Max where it will premiere this Thursday. Both films were good, but neither were surefire commercial winners, especially in a time when audiences see the event movies in theaters and see everything else on VOD and streaming. Warner Bros. sold Andy Serkis’ commercially dubious Mowgli to Netflix, thus getting cash for a likely commercial time bomb thanks to mixed buzz and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book already earning $366 million domestic/$966 million worldwide for Disney in 2016.

The dark and violent PG-13 rated Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle was pretty damn good, arguably as good (for different reasons) as the (also quite good) Disney version, but Warner Bros. unloaded a likely commercial loser and continued its 2018 winning streak (The Meg, Crazy Rich Asians, A Star Is Born, Aquaman, etc.) unabated. Meanwhile, Netflix got a mega-budget streaming premiere blockbuster (at $180 million, it’s the priciest streaming-first movie ever) and an acquisition that was frankly much better than most of the (non-Oscar bait) Netflix originals at that time. If The Woman In the Window is merely “okay,” it’ll still be a win for Netflix as they’ll get a buzzy original starring Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Tracy Letts (who penned the adaptation), Bryan Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anthony Mackie and Wyatt Russell.

If the movie is “bad,” then it’ll just enhance Netflix’s reputation as the modern-day “straight to video” disposal unit, as frankly The Lovebirds was no new comedy classic. I doubt Netflix cares if The Woman in the Window plays like a mockbuster of The Girl on the Train. Their original features are slowly improving in quality and they still pride themselves as a quantity over quality “something for everyone” streaming service. Moreover, fair or not, Netflix is building its brand via binge-worthy television shows as opposed to original feature films. Who cares if The Kissing Booth 2 or Animal Crackers is any good (my son enjoyed it well enough yesterday) if everyone is devouring The Umbrella Academy or Sugar Rush? Even decades-old reruns (Jurassic Park, Shameless, Moesha, etc.) give Netflix a boost.  

Since Disney and Netflix are in a weirdly codependent relationship (“Only Disney event movies are worth seeing in theaters and everything else can wait for Netflix!”), it may be of value for the two of them to occasionally help each other. Disney still has a reputation to maintain as king of the global box office, so, among already completed Fox and Disney flicks, we may see more ending up on Disney+ or elsewhere. Hell, Paramount is working with the very streamers (Apple, Amazon, Netflix, etc.) that has threatened to end its ability to function as a theatrical movie studio. Come what may, I’m guessing the simplest explanation is the correct one: Walt Disney sold Amy Adams and Joe Wright’s The Woman in the Window to Netflix because it wasn’t very good.