As I wrote yesterday, Sacha Baron Cohen is being profiled on “60 Minutes” tonight.
The reason is his movie, “Ali G: Who Iz I?” which is supposed to open this Friday.
But as I reported already, “Ali G” is being dumped by Amazon Studios. They announced last week that the movie would only play for one weekend in theaters.
I can tell you, it’s worse than that.
As of today, “Ali G” has no theater bookings at all in the Los Angeles area. None, not one. You cannot buy tickets because there is nowhere to go.
I did find a few once a day showings at small theaters on the outskirts of town, in places like Tustin and Long Beach, all at 7pm.
It’s bad enough in New York, where the movie will play once on Saturday, and once on Sunday in three different secondary theaters. It’s not scheduled for Manhattan’s biggest theater, AMC Lincoln Square.
“Ali G” will play three times a day in West Nyack, New York.
It’s the same in downtown Chicago — just 7pm each night at two houses.
Like New York, you can find it in two suburban Chicago cineplexes. Also, in Miami, nothing downtown, barely anything anywhere else.
“Ali G” is definitely dumped. Amazon wouldn’t have reported box office numbers anyway. But now we know we’ll hear nothing.
Even more confusing: there’s no mention of the movie on Prime Video’s website. Is Amazon going to stream it? Once “Ali G” has its few showings, will it even be seen on the platform? Ot will “Ali G Who Iz I?” disappear like, say, Jimmy Hoffa, never to be discussed again?
What’s really going on here? Early reports from those who’ve seen the movie say that Cohen may be satirizing Amazon owner Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez as garish characters. I can’t imagine why the company would buy the movie if that’s the case. Did they not know? Is this a catch and kill?
Stand by…
