You are currently viewing How ‘The Substance’ Helped Mubi Become a Streaming Success Story

Early on in “The Substance,” the body horror film starring Demi Moore that has been nominated for five Academy Awards, Dennis Quaid grotesquely consumes an endless amount of peel-and-eat shrimp while firing Ms. Moore’s character for the crime of turning 50. Shells fly and sweat collects on his upper lip while he gesticulates wildly with a crustacean wobbling in his fingertips.

It was this scene that convinced Efe Cakarel, the chief executive of the niche streaming service Mubi, that he had to buy the audacious horror film. The movie had been left for dead by Universal Pictures after the director, Coralie Fargeat, refused to recut it to executives’ tastes.

“This was something incredibly unique,” Mr. Cakarel said. “This was going to be our first global acquisition. I had never been this sure about anything.”

What followed was a $12 million purchase for the global rights to the film, and a rare success

Keep reading this article on The New York Times Media & Advertising.

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