Viggo Mortensen Says Amazon’s ‘Greed’ Ruined Release for Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives

Viggo Mortensen says that Amazon’s “greed” ruined the release of Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives.

Thirteen Lives is a 2022 biographical survival movie about the Tham Luang cave rescue. Mortensen played Richard Stanton in the Howard-directed movie, which also starred Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, and Tom Bateman.

The film was released in select United States theaters on July 29, 2022, before it then began streaming on Amazon Prime Video on August 5.

What did Viggo Mortensen say about Thirteen Lives’ release?

Speaking with Vanity Fair, Mortensen opened up about how he felt it was “shameful” how Thirteen Lives wasn’t given a wider release.

“That was a movie that MGM made, and when they did their test screenings for that movie, they got the highest scores in the history of that studio, and they got really excited and decided that that year, that November, they were going to put it out worldwide in many, many, many thousands of theaters,” Mortensen said. “Then Amazon bought MGM, initially promised to respect the deal that MGM had made with Ron Howard, and then they went back on that. Basically you saw that movie for a week in Chicago, New York and LA, London, and that was that. Then you had the streaming, which I thought was really sad. It’s a really well-shot movie. So it concerns me. If the only way I could, say, direct my next movie was for it to only be streaming, I would have to consider that because otherwise the movie just doesn’t get made.”

He added, “They have all their excuses for why they did that, but it comes down to greed. How much money do you need? I think Amazon could certainly have respected the deal, as they said they were going to, and released it widely in theaters and let it have its run. And then they could have also made money streaming. But they figured it would be more cost-effective—i.e., they would make more money—if they didn’t have to bother with spending money on promoting it and putting in theaters, and sharing that money with theaters, frankly. That’s what it comes down to. To me, it’s greed.

“…They certainly could have had a run at awards and prestige for themselves. I agree—I think it’s short-sighted. For a guy with such a storied career like Ron Howard, who has made so much money for studios, who was so deservedly well-recognized as a filmmaker historically—to do that to a guy like him I think is appalling. He’s a very nice guy, so he hasn’t gone out there complaining about it, but I’m happy to do it for him. I’m not speaking for him, I’m just speaking for myself. I think it was shameful what they did.”