Universal Pictures is making it much easier to watch its recent creature feature Beast, which sees Idris Elba fighting a gigantic, man-killing lion in Africa. As the movie’s prospects at the box office (sadly) wind down, the movie has been made available On Demand as of today, meaning you can stream it from the comfort of your couch from various digital retailers. I am here to tell you, that for those with $20 to spend, I strongly feel this is worth the time.
Prey for survival. Experience #BeastMovie On Demand NOW! https://t.co/wkBXGNYfhl pic.twitter.com/MyawiFydB7
— beastmovie (@BeastMovie) September 8, 2022
The movie is available through just about any digital retailer one might wish to use, such as Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu, DirecTV, YouTube, and others. It is currently available with premium VOD pricing, meaning it is $20 to rent. It is also available to purchase for $25 for those who feel confident they will want to watch the lion vs. man shenanigans more than once. The synopsis for Beast reads as follows:
“Elba plays Dr. Nate Samuels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.”
For whatever reason, the late summer and early fall box office were left pretty bare by Hollywood this year. There are few big movies until Halloween Ends arrives in mid-October. But Beast debuted in late August in an earnest attempt by Universal to deliver an original movie to drum up some business. Unfortunately, the film topped out (to date) at $48 million against a reported $36 million budget. Now, it’s up to audiences at home to discover it in the hopes of saving it from being a commercial disappointment.
I am not one to tell people at movie studios what to do, but my feeling is that this movie might have been marketed a little poorly. As someone who saw Beast on opening weekend and absolutely loved it, I feel they could have played up the creature feature angle and pitched this more to the horror-loving audience, such as you fine folks, as opposed to going broader with it. This to say, I feel strongly that a lot of people are going to see this one and dig it once it becomes more accessible. I would implore you to vote with your dollars here so that we might get more big-screen creature features in the future. Money is, sadly, the only language Hollywood speaks with total consistency.
The movie was directed by Baltasar Kormákur and written by Ryan Engle. It also stars Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley, and Leah Sava Jeffries
Beast is currently in theaters and On Demand. To find the movie through your digital retailer of choice, head on over to BeastMovie.com.
