Ben Affleck, Matt Damon’s Nike Film ‘Air’ To Be $7 Million Super Bowl Ad By Amazon, and Unprecedented theatrical Release

Sue Kroll recently joined Amazon’s marketing team and made a bold bet on the theatrical appeal of “Air”. Kroll, a veteran of Warner Bros., was hired by Amazon for her experience in theatrically releasing movies on a large scale. She did this with movies like “The Dark Knight”, “Mad Max Fury Road,” or “Argo,” which was directed by Ben Affleck.

Amazon has high hopes for “Air”, which stars Damon as Vaccaro and Affleck as Nike founder Phil Knight

Viola Davis plays Jordan’s mother Deloris. Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman and Chris Messina round out the cast. Amazon spent more than $7 million to create buzz for the film’s Super Bowl ad.

Although “Air” is about Jordan’s pursuit to get a Nike endorsement deal for him, and thus changing the face and perception of sneakers and sports, Jordan is not an actual character and is not played by an actor. According to an insider, he only appears in footage from college basketball games in the early ’80s.

Netflix tried its hand at theatrical release last year with “Glass Onion – A Knives Out Story”, which was shown on 600 screens for a week during Thanksgiving weekend. Before that, Netflix had only released movies theatrically in a small format to be eligible for the Oscars. Amazon was the first company to get into the movie business. It released films like “Manchester by the Sea” or “The Big Sick” in cinemas. This gave them exclusive windows. These films did not premiere on as many screens as Air when it premieres. The company has shifted to streaming debuts in recent years. The company is however rumored to be considering major investments in theatrical releases.