Stephen King’s Firestarter Reboot to Get Day & Date Cinema / Streaming Release

Universal already had May 13 this year reserved for a Blumhouse movie, and it turns out that’s Firestarter, Deadline reports. The movie will go day-and-date on Peacock too as the streamer needs to up its paid subscriber count. Firestarter is the only wide theatrical release on May 13, and follows the weekend after Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

This is the fourth Universal theatrical release to go day-and-date on Peacock after The Boss Baby: Family Business, Blumhouse/Miramax’s Halloween Kills and this weekend’s romantic comedy Marry Me starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. It’s technically five NBCUniversal movies going theatrical day-and-date on Peacock this year, if you count the upcoming release of Focus Features’ Sundance acquisition Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, which has yet to set a date.

As of this minute, it’s questionable whether a Peacock availability of a movie shaves off a lot at the box office given the fact that the streamer has a small footprint. NBCUniversal revealed during an earnings call at the end of January that they ended 2021 with 9M paid subs.

“Within these 24.5 MAAs are over 9 million paid subscribers approaching $10 in paid ARPU, which includes the advertising,” Brian Roberts, Comcast chairman-CEO, said.

Of the above theatrical day-and-date movies, Halloween Kills was big out of the gate with a $49.4M start, a huge welcome to exhibition at the October box office. But the movie fell short of $100M with $92M. Marry Me is expected to open in the mid-teens this weekend.