Musk, Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary about the titular mogul and his growing power, is coming to VOD earlier than expected — but hardly being disappeared from the landscape.
While some headlines this weekend had suggested the movie was being “pulled,” distributor Bleecker Street is simply preparing to announce a new plan that will give the movie a somewhat shorter runway in theaters and a longer one on VOD.
Originally scheduled for a Nov. 24 debut on paid platforms, the movie will now come to paid VOD on Nov. 6. It will continue to play in theaters until then; after playing on 60 screens last weekend, it will be in an as-yet-undetermined number this weekend. Simultaneous plays in theaters after the VOD release are also possible, a company representative said.
Bleecker Street also reports that preorders on VOD are strong; indeed, Apple’s top 50 VOD orders for the current week include just two movies that have not been released yet: The Odyssey at No. 10 and Musk at No. 24. Those films land at No. 1 and 2, respectively, on the company’s preorder chart.
The film has grossed $650,000 in theaters since its release on Oct. 9, which works out to about 40,000 tickets sold — a number certainly small by many theatrical expectations, but hardly unexpected for a four-hour investigative documentary. A 28-day theatrical window for a documentary before it moves to VOD is also not unusually truncated.
The film remains on course to debut on HBO platforms this winter, even as Musk associate David Ellison has now acquired the network. The VOD move-up also extends the amount of time many Americans can see the film should any attempt to censor or stop that release materialize.
Gibney’s movie looks at how its subject came to amass so much power and how he has expanded it in the Donald Trump era via DOGE cuts, surveillance, media and broadband takeovers and donations to the Republican Party. With the news that he is investing $1 billion in Skydance and with unprecedented levels of contributions to swing midterm races to Republicans, Musk has become a figure increasingly central to the American political and media landscape.
As it has rolled out to theaters, Musk has also been hit by social media bans as well as theater-screen competition from the doc phenom You Can See Everything, though comparing the two films would be like comparing a smoothie to a Hershey bar; each provides a different kind of benefit.
