David O. Russell and Nicolas Cage’s ‘Madden’ Sets Prime Video Streaming Release for November
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- Amazon MGM scheduled "Madden" for a November 18 Prime Video debut, with a brief awards-qualifying theatrical window earlier in November but no nationwide wide release.
- Nicolas Cage stars as John Madden, with the film chronicling Madden's 1970s Oakland Raiders coaching tenure — including their first Super Bowl victory — and his decades as a TV football color commentator after retiring from coaching in 1979.
- Christian Bale plays Raiders owner Al Davis and Kathryn Hahn plays Madden's wife Virginia, with John Mulaney, Sienna Miller, and Shane Gillis rounding out the cast.
- David O. Russell announced the project in 2024, calling it a film about "the joy, humanity and genius that was John Madden in a wildly inventive, cool world of the 1970s."
- Russell is an Oscar-nominated director behind "American Hustle," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "The Fighter," but his previous film, 2022's "Amsterdam," earned just $31 million globally against an $80 million budget, losing many millions for Disney's 20th Century Studios.
Why it matters: Amazon MGM's decision to skip a wide theatrical run in favor of an awards-qualifying-only release points to reduced commercial confidence, coming right after Russell's last film 'Amsterdam' earned $31 million globally against an $80 million budget and lost many millions for Disney — a track record that appears to be capping the rollout for a star-driven Cage-Bale vehicle.
