Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley might have had the unluckiest timing of any film of the last 10 years. It was released right as the omicron variant of Covid-19 began spreading like wildfire across the United States. And it came out on the same day as a small, upstart independent film titled Spider-Man: No Way Home, which meant anyone who wasn’t afraid of going to the theater was probably going to Spider-Man. As a result, multiplexes put Spider-Man on more and more screens to satisfy demand, giving Nightmare Alley fewer and fewer screenings per day.
No wonder then that Nightmare Alley has made just $15 million at the box office, a fraction of what del Toro’s films typically earn in theaters. (The Shape of Water grossed nearly $200 million worldwide in the pre-pandemic days of 2017.) So if you are one of the many GDT fans who missed out on the film on the big screen, take note: The movie is now streaming on both Hulu and HBO Max.
Nightmare Alley, based on the classic crime novel by William Lindsay Gresham, stars Bradley Cooper as a con man and carnival worker who dreams of becoming rich and famous as a mentalist. The impressive cast also includes Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, Tony Collette, and Richard Jenkins. Here is the trailer:
If you are still going to the theater these days, take note: Nightmare Alley is also still screening around the country even though it’s now on streaming as well. And movie theaters are the only place you can see del Toro’s black and white cut of the film, which is called Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light. Del Toro began showing the film monochromatically around Los Angeles at one-off screenings, and audience response was so positive that Searchlight decided to roll out the black and white cut to more theaters. If you prefer to watch at home, you can find Nightmare Alley on Hulu here, and on HBO Max here.
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