In the words of Eddie Murphy‘s Prince Akeem from 1988’s Coming to America, “no journey is too great when one finds what he seeks.” Now the highly anticipated comedy sequel Coming 2 Americahas just found a brand new distributor.
Paramount Pictures is reportedly selling the movie off to Amazon Studios in a deal worth roughly $125 million. Learn the details of the Coming 2 America Amazon deal below, including the new release date.
Variety reports that Coming 2 America will soon be coming 2 Amazon Studios, pending the finalization of a deal that’s worth more than $100 million. Final details are reportedly still being worked out, and if all goes well, “two complex consumer marketing tie-ins with McDonalds and whiskey brand Crown Royal” will be ported over from Paramount to Amazon as well. The McDonald’s deal, in particular, isn’t just any old promotional tie-in: in the first Coming to America, Murphy’s Prince Akeem character takes a job at McDowell’s, a McDonald’s knock-off that had a pop-up version appear in Hollywood a few years ago.
Fandango’s Erik Davis says the new movie will arrive on the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform on December 18, 2020 – that’s a few days earlier than Paramount’s plan to release it on Christmas Day. There’s a chance its new owners at Amazon decide to put this sequel in theaters for a limited run before that December 18 date rolls around; earlier today, the company announced that they’d be launching the new Rachel Brosnahan thriller I’m Your Woman on December 4 before that movie drops on Prime Video one week later, so a similar tactic could be employed here.
Murphy reprises the role of Prince Akeem, who this time “is set to become king of the fictional country of Zamunda when he discovers he has a son he never knew about in America — a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle. To honor the former king’s dying wish to groom his grandson as the crown prince, Akeem and Semmi set off to America.” Arsenio Hall, Wesley Snipes, James Earl Jones, and more round out the cast, and Craig Brewer (Dolemite is My Name) directs.
This is the third big movie that Paramount Pictures has sold off this year alone, following The Lovebirdsand The Trial of the Chicago 7, both of which ended up selling to Netflix. One has to wonder how long that studio will continue to exist if it continues to burn off its own projects like this, but hopefully the money they’re getting will keep them afloat for long enough where they can get back into the game in a serious way.