Sometimes the path that a film travels before it eventually ends up in the cinema is strange. Sometimes there are movies that are completely finished, but end up on the shelf to ultimately never reach the cinema and only become available via VOD (and DVD / BluRay). Sometimes there is a very good reason, for example because they are terribly bad (think of Get a Job with Miles Teller, Anna Kendrick, Allison Brie and Bryan Cranston which was filmed in 2012 and released last year) but sometimes it is because studios don’t expect them to attract a large audience.

That was initially the case with 47 Meters Down. A film that would be available to buy in stores/online last year and for which the physical copies were already ready and shipped to stores. The film distributor decided to sell the rights and the new owner stopped the plans and decided to release the film in the cinema this year. That turned out to be a smart move, because this film, with a mere budget of 5.5 million dollars, eventually ended up making just over 53 million, which shows that there are still enough people who enjoy shark movies and would like to go to the cinema for them. I do not belong to this group, but the title has been available through Netflix (over in The Netherlands). Continue reading →