Is ‘Joy Ride’ Streaming Now? When Will the Film be Available to Watch on Top Streaming Platforms?
“What’s the worst that could happen?” has become cliche famous last words for a reason. That’s a lesson that four friends are about to learn in “Joy Ride,” the newest release from Lionsgate that hits movie theaters on Friday, July 7.
The movie centers on four Asian-American friends — played by Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu — as they travel through Asia in search of one of their gang’s birth mothers. Along the way, their experience becomes one of bonding, friendship, belonging, and no-holds-barred debauchery. It’s just a road trip, what could possibly go wrong??
The film is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, gathering a 92% rating. Critics point out there’s plenty of base humor in the film, but it’s balanced with a surprisingly earnest emotional story that will leave viewers cry-laughing all the way home.
Watch the Trailer for ‘Joy Ride’:
If the fact that Seth Rogen is producing the movie has you convinced that you’re better off seeing it at home, you’re unfortunately in for a bit of a wait. “Joy Ride” is not being released to streaming this week as it is a theatrical exclusive.
The movie is being distributed by Lionsgate, which makes its arrival date on streaming a bit of a mystery. In fact, it’s hard to know for sure which streaming service will get “Joy Ride” at all. Past releases from Lionsgate are littered across the streaming market; some reside on Max, while films like the “John Wick” franchise have spent time on Peacock (though the movies are not currently available there).
The Oscar-winning comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” eventually landed on STARZ, which is technically owned by Lionsgate. The company is exploring ways to separate its movie studio from the cable channel/streaming platform, but the comedic tone of “Joy Ride” suggests it might fit best on STARZ when it leaves theaters.
Users could well be kept waiting for a while before “Joy Ride” shows up on STARZ, however. The company uses lengthy theatrical/transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) windows for its movies in order to generate as much revenue as possible before allowing them to hit streaming; for example, The Streamable predicted that “Sisu” would be available to stream in the first week of July, 65 to 70 days after its theatrical release. That’s a fairly standard theatrical window, but as of the time of this writing the movie is not available to stream on-demand, though it is available for purchase on Prime Video.
That means there’s a good chance “Joy Ride” won’t be available on STARZ for up to 120 days. That would fix its arrival date on the service as somewhere around Nov. 4, which would allow families with older kids to start watching the movie in time for the holidays.
STARZ
STARZ offers a subscription video streaming service that gives access to content on the STARZ channel without the need of a cable subscription. With your subscription, you’ll get access to 7,500+ films and episodes, including all of their current originals like “Outlander,” The Serpent Queen,” “BMF,” and “Power.”