10 Recent Movies That Were Sent Out To Die

And finally, has any film in recent memory had a more emphatic vote-of-no-confidence from its own distributor than Long Distance?

Originally shot under the title Distant, this sci-fi survival film starring Anthony Ramos and Naomi Scott actually wrapped shooting way back in November 2020, with a release date initially set for March 11, 2022.

However, Distant's release was delayed three times before being pulled off the slate entirely, after which it finally premiered in Vietnam in July 2024 under its new title Long Distance, and then released direct to streaming in the U.S. this past July.

It's agonisingly clear that Universal had no desire to give this movie a chance, seemingly sensing that it had little box office potential and so basically burying it. And while it's hardly a great movie, it's certainly not bad enough to warrant this treatment.

Though Long Distance actually ended up performing relatively well on Hulu in the U.S., that certainly wasn't thanks to the efforts of anyone involved with marketing or releasing the movie.