One day, Paramount are going to launch a multi-film G.I. Joe franchise, based on nothing but the fact it appears as though they’ll keep trying until they finally get it right. Snake Eyes may hold the best reviews out of the three movies we’ve gotten so far, but a 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes is hardly worth shouting about from the rooftops.
It may have fared slightly better with critics than Stephen Sommers’ The Rise of Cobra and Jon M. Chu’s Retaliation, but it’s set to fall well behind its predecessors at the box office. Both of the previous G.I. Joe efforts earned at least $300 million, but Snake Eyes has barely managed 10% of that total, with the prequel spinoff’s global haul currently sitting at just over $35 million.
That’s not great to put it lightly, and presumably in an attempt to recoup some of that lost income, the studio have announced out of the blue that Snake Eyes is coming to VOD tomorrow. That’s only 25 days after Henry Golding’s star vehicle premiered in theaters, and the movie doesn’t even hit the big screen in many major international markets including the United Kingdom until Wednesday, so there’s an air of desperation about the move.
Releasing a big budget blockbuster on VOD when it still hasn’t completed its theatrical rollout is virtually unheard of even by the standards of the pandemic era, but with less than three weeks to go until the 45-day window is up and Snake Eyes takes up residency on Paramount+, it does make sense. A home video bow has also been confirmed for October 19th, along with a three-film Steelbook collection of the entire G.I. Joe trilogy.
