Is Russell Crowe Film ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ Available to Stream? When Will it Head to Netflix?
The acclaimed actor Russell Crowe has portrayed many remarkable characters throughout his career, the most memorable being his portrayal of the Roman general turned slave Maximus Decimus Meridius in the iconic film “Gladiator.” He won an Academy Award for his performance in “A Beautiful Mind” and is now taking a step away from his typical roles with a supernatural horror film, “The Pope’s Exorcist.” In the movie, coming to theaters on Friday, April 14, Crowe stars as the head exorcist for the Vatican and must combat all sorts of evil, human and demonic.
The film is based on the true story of priest Father Gabriele Amorth, an Italian priest who performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Church. The plot of “The Pope’s Exorcist” follows the father as he investigates the possession of a child and uncovers a conspiracy the Vatican has tried to keep secret.
Watch a Trailer for “The Pope’s Exorcist”:
The film isn’t faring especially well with critics, as review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has it as a 48% on the Tomatometer, however, cinema-going patrons seem to have a more favorable view of it giving it a positive 86%.
Since this film is produced by Sony Pictures Classics, where and when it will be available to stream is a little more tricky to determine than when a movie studio also owns a streaming service. However, thanks to a 2021 deal between Sony and Netflix, the movie will first land on the world’s largest streamer; the only question is when.
Sony’s “The Woman King” was released in theatres on Sept. 16, 2022, and wasn’t available on Netflix until Feb. 16, 2023, making it a 153-day window between cinema and streaming. Brad Pitt’s “Bullet Train” on the other hand made it to streaming platforms in 120 days. Because Sony does not have its own streamer service, the studio is not incentivized to move the film to Netflix any sooner than it has to. So, the box office performance of “The Pope’s Exorcist” will play a large role in when it arrives on streaming.
However, it won’t be the only determining factor in the overall equation. Because Sony will look to maximize the money it can make on the movie before sending it off to Netflix, the studio will give it every opportunity to succeed on video-on-demand platforms like Prime Video. Sony will likely make the movie available first on premium video-on-demand (PVOD) in the later stages of its theatrical run. Then, once it leaves cinemas, it will be available for transactional video-on-demand (TVOD), so viewers can rent or buy the movie to watch at home or on the go. Depending on how well the movie does in those environments will likely be the thing that finalizes when “The Pope’s Exorcist” drops on Netflix. If people are willing to pay Sony for the privilege to stream the movie, rather than waiting to watch it for “free” on Netflix, the studio will give them every opportunity to do so.
Based on critics’ reviews of the film so far, it seems reasonable to assume that “The Pope’s Exorcist” will not be a box office juggernaut. However, because of the horror nature of the movie, it could find a passionate niche audience on VOD. Therefore our best guess for when the film might be available on Netflix would be in the 120-day range, the same window “Bullet Train” saw. That would mean that “The Pope’s Exorcist” will be available to stream on or around Monday, Aug. 14, 2023.
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