UPDATE: Mutiny is now the most pirated movie of the week, beating out Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with the worldwide box office stalled around $16 million as buyers wait to see whether Amazon compensates them.
UPDATE: Lionsgate and the producers now have the first hard number on the fallout, as Mutiny opened to just $7.7 million domestically while they assess how much the accidental Prime Video stream cost the film.
Jason Statham’s new action thriller Mutiny showed up on Prime Video this week. The problem is it was never supposed to be there.
Deadline reports Amazon accidentally made the full movie available to stream for a matter of hours after a mistake caused it to be posted on the film’s Prime Video product page, the spot that normally hosts trailers. Subscribers who stumbled onto it watched the entire thing for free.
Lionsgate opens Mutiny in U.S. theaters this Friday, August 21.
One stunned viewer posted on X, “This has to be a huge mistake, right?” while streaming the movie, pointing out that his local theater has showtimes starting this week. Others joked that somebody at Amazon is getting fired over the upload.
Film Buyers Want Amazon To Write A Check
According to the trade, the film is already being pirated in multiple territories, and that is where things get expensive.
Mutiny is a $50 million-plus net production. Lionsgate is understood to have paid eight figures for the movie, and international distributors have poured millions more into acquiring and marketing it in their own markets.
Some of those territories do not release the film until later, which means they are now competing with a pristine pirated copy.
The movie had just opened in France and the Middle East on Wednesday, reportedly performing well, when the leak came to light.
One furious international buyer called the situation unprecedented and told Deadline it amounts to “a multimillion-dollar problem for Amazon,” with buyers expecting the streamer, a Premium VOD partner on the film, to write a check to help make things right.
International buyers are now coordinating a formal message to Amazon while Lionsgate’s anti-piracy team works to contain the damage. Some theater chains are also said to be up in arms. Amazon, Lionsgate, and reps for Statham and the producers all declined comment.
The blunder comes as Netflix is being sued for $105 million after a hard drive containing the unreleased Nicolas Cage World War II thriller Fortitude was stolen from its offices, another case of a streamer fumbling a movie that was not theirs to lose.
The Timing Could Not Be Worse
A full copy of a movie hitting pirate sites 48 hours before opening weekend is about the worst-case scenario for a theatrical release, and it is especially rough for a mid-budget action picture that lives or dies on its opening.
Statham remains one of the last reliable theatrical draws in the genre, which is exactly why Lionsgate wrote that eight-figure check in the first place.
The studio moved Mutiny off its original January date and into late August specifically to give the film a bigger theatrical runway.
Now it heads into that weekend with a free copy floating around the internet.
Critics Are Lukewarm, But That Has Never Stopped Statham
Reviews landed right alongside the leak, and critics are doing what critics always do with Statham movies. Mutiny sits at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes as of Thursday, with complaints centering on a formulaic plot and action that saves most of the mayhem for the back half.
Here is the thing: none of that has ever mattered. Statham movies routinely post audience scores far above the critic number. Wrath of Man went 68% critics to 90% audience. The Beekeeper went 72% to 92%.
The audience score for Mutiny goes live this weekend, and the box office, as always, will be the real verdict.
Fans who caught the accidental Prime stream lean the same way. S
tatham loyalists praised the brutal shipboard fights, with one viewer comparing the movie to Die Hard on a boat and another posting, “Mutiny was SO good!!!!” The more critical takes said the action is back-loaded into the final stretch and the movie drags in between, even at 95 minutes.
About Mutiny
Directed by Jean-François Richet, who previously teamed with Gerard Butler on Plane, Mutiny stars Statham as Cole Reed, a former Special Forces operative working private security who witnesses the murder of his billionaire boss, gets framed for the crime, and boards a cargo ship to hunt down the people responsible, only to uncover an international conspiracy.
Annabelle Wallis, Roland Møller, Jason Wong, Ramon Tikaram, Arnas Fedaravičius, and Adrian Lester co-star. Lindsay Michel and J.P. Davis wrote the script, and Statham produces with Marc Butan. The film is rated R and runs 95 minutes.
Mutiny opens Friday, August 21, only in theaters. Well, mostly. Watch the trailer.
