Juror #2 drops on OTT: Clint Eastwood's Nicholas Hoult-led legal thriller streams in India, but...

Clint Eastwood's latest film as a director has made its way to OTT in India, but not for all subscribers. The legal thriller starring Nicholas Hoult has begun streaming on Prime Video but is only available for rent. Produced by Clint and written by Jonathan Abrams, Juror #2 also stars Toni Collette, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, and Kiefer Sutherland. 

High stakes moral dilemma

The protagonist of the film, a juror in a high-profile murder case, comes to terms with the possibility that he was the one who killed the victim. In Juror #2, Hoult plays family man Justin Kemp, a juror in a high-profile murder trial who faces a difficult moral decision that could determine the fate of the alleged killer's conviction or acquittal.

Check out the trailer below:

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The National Board of Review ranked Juror #2 among the top ten films of 2024, and critics generally agreed with that assessment.

After 22 years apart, Collette and Hoult were back together in About a Boy (2002), playing mother and son. After Rebel in the Rye (2017), this was Deutch and Hoult's second collaboration.

Limited box office release and Warner Bros.' strategy

Warner Bros. was exempt from disclosing the film's box office performance due to its limited release in less than 50 US theatres. Variety criticised Warner Bros.'s decision to restrict the film's distribution, calling it a peculiar approach for a filmmaker with commercial appeal. The critics pointed out that Eastwood had been working with Warner Bros. for half a century and had continued to produce financially successful films, such as American Sniper (2014), Sully (2016), and The Mule (2018).

According to Bilge Ebiri of Vulture, Warner Bros.' choice suggests serious issues with the current studio system. They further claim that, despite his genre credentials and iconic status, Eastwood is one of the only big filmmakers who are still making adult dramas with corporate financing. To the modern studio executive, he must appear like a bug in the matrix—not as an artist deserving of protection, but as a flaw that requires fixing.

Supposedly, Warner Bros. chose not to provide official figures in an effort to save face for Eastwood and avoid any negative box office headlines.

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