Conservative media site The Daily Wire has taken the unusual step of launching its first original movie, Shut In, for free on YouTube.
The Black List and BloodList thriller, directed by xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage and Disturbia director D.J. Caruso, will debut on YouTube on the evening of February 10. The stream will only be available in the U.S. During the screening, The Daily Wire will also show a first look teaser trailer for its Gina Carano western Terror On The Prairie, and reveal a new movie project it is working on.
While ad-supported free movie launches are becoming more popular as the distribution ecosystem evolves, this launch is not ad supported, we are told, but is more of a marketing play. The initial plan was to debut the film for Daily Wire subscribers, but the site’s subs will now get an exclusive window to see the movie after its one-time YouTube screening. The film is also being sold to international distributors by Voltage Pictures. Those buyers may not be thrilled by the update.
Daily Wire co-founder and co-CEO Jeremy Boreing told us of the strategy: “We’re making an event out of the premiere and proving to the market what we’re capable of as a company making quality entertainment. We’re building our brand and trying to change the way our audience sees us. If we succeed at that, we believe memberships will follow. As to diluting foreign sales, keep in mind that the stream will only exist that night in the U.S. In other words, after 1 hour and 40 minutes, the movie is off of YouTube forever.”
Shut In stars actress and singer Rainey Qualley (Love In The Time Of Corona), Jake Horowitz (The Vast of Night) and Vincent Gallo (Buffalo ’66) in his first feature role since 2013. The thriller centers on a young single mother who is held captive in her pantry by her violent ex and his meth-addict friend, and she must escape to save her children before it’s too late. Based on a script by Melanie Toast, Bonfire Legend’s Dallas Sonnier (Bone Tomahawk) first discovered the script on The Blacklist website, purchased the rights, and introduced Toast to her agents at UTA.
