Why Is It So Hard To Watch ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ In A Theater? 

I used to make fun of my mom for making us see every Black film, regardless of quality, when I was growing up. Her reasoning was always, “We have to support ourselves.” Fast forward some 20-plus years, and I have gladly taken on the tradition. I make an effort to support Black filmmakers whenever possible, seeing their movies on opening weekend because I know that’s when it matters most. 

I had my calendar marked for Aug. 15 when Highest 2 Lowest, the latest Spike Lee Joint starring Denzel Washington, was released. I went to check showtimes at Harkins, Arizona’s hometown theater chain, but got nothing. While I avoid AMC as much as possible, I was willing to make the trip to support my boys. The only problem is that it wasn’t showing there either. In fact, on opening weekend, Highest 2 Lowest was only showing at one random theater in Scottsdale, aka the whitest part of the Phoenix metro area. 

Luckily, the movie expanded in its second weekend to a chain of local independent theaters that are far closer to where I live, and I immediately rushed out to see it that Friday. It is a certified banger, y’all. I’d tell you to rush out and see it, but there’s a likely chance it’s not playing at a theater near you. 

This is a film from one of the greatest directors of our time, starring one of the greatest actors of our time, and its theatrical release is being treated like a low-budget, straight-to-DVD thriller. It joins a growing trend of Black art being treated as disposable. 

My beef with Apple Original Films’ handling of Highest 2 Lowest started with the marketing campaign. The first theatrical trailer for the movie didn’t release until two weeks before the movie was supposed to come out. Compare this to the marketing campaigns for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, which were also produced by Apple Original Films. I could not go to a movie in the summer of 2023 without seeing a trailer for these films. 

While Killers of the Flower Moon received critical acclaim, and Napoleon had a mixed leaning toward positive reception, neither movie did well financially. It didn’t help that both films boasted $200 million budgets.

Now, you could argue that flops of that magnitude informed the way Apple handled Highest 2 Lowest, but that raises concerns about their discernment when it comes to determining what would and wouldn’t play to an audience. 

It makes sense that Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon didn’t make back their money. Both films were in the 3-hour time frame, which is already going to alienate a certain segment of the audience. Napoleon was a tonally scattershot biopic, and Killers of the Flower Moon was a dark, harrowing drama about how a group of corrupt, white men violently stole wealth from the indigenous Osage Nation. While I’ll argue the artistic merit of Flower Moon all day long, it’s not the kind of movie you gather your friends and family to rush out and see. 

Conversely, Highest 2 Lowest is a swaggering, propulsive thriller with a sly sense of humor. Spike Lee once again proves no one shoots New York City quite like him. Denzel is on a swag offensive, giving a performance that effortlessly sways between commanding and playful. Jeffrey Wright gives a deeply layered performance that will hopefully be remembered come Oscar time. Rapper A$AP Rocky is a revelation, though to say more of his character would veer into spoiler territory. 

With this summer’s F1, we saw the full weight of the Apple marketing machine. My mom wound up seeing the movie with me because she kept seeing a trailer every time we saw a movie over the spring to the point she felt contractually obligated to see it. F1 was one of the biggest hits of the summer and wound up becoming the highest-grossing movie of Brad Pitt’s career. 

Why couldn’t we get that same energy for Highest 2 Lowest? 

It’s not like Denzel can’t open a movie. Gladiator II opened last fall and was the biggest opening of his career. I’ll tell you right now, the only reason my nana and I were in the theater for Gladiator II was to see Denzel doing Denzel things in ancient Rome. 

It’s not like Spike Lee can’t open a movie. His last theatrical release, 2018’s BlacKkKlansman, made $93 million against a $15 million budget. It’d be one thing if we were talking about a searing, arthouse drama, but make no bones about it, Highest 2 Lowest is an out-and-out crowd pleaser. It’s operating in the same vein as Spike and Denzel’s last collaboration, Inside Man. 

I’m concerned about how Highest 2 Lowest has been handled because if this can happen to two of our greatest, Black cinematic icons, what does that mean for the Black filmmakers who don’t carry the weight of a Spike Lee or Denzel Washington? 

We saw a similar situation play out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe earlier this summer with the release of Ironheart. The show followed up on the character RiRi Williams, who was introduced in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, one of Marvel’s few outright box-office successes in recent years. Ironheart was announced shortly after the release of Wakanda Forever and was produced by its director, Ryan Coogler. 

The show had a June release date, and as it got closer and closer, I kept wondering if the show was actually going to drop because there was no marketing for it at all. Similar to Highest 2 Lowest, the trailer dropped only a couple of weeks before the show aired. Ironheart was unceremoniously batch-released over two weeks with very little fanfare. Of course, the trolls came out to hate, but from everything I’ve heard from folks who watched the show, it’s actually pretty good. 

Now, full disclosure, I haven’t watched Ironheart, but that had less to do with the show and more to do with the fact that I didn’t even realize it came out until my friend hit me up asking if I watched it. 

She did a better job informing me that the show was out than Disney did.

What’s bizarre to me about this growing shift in how Black films are handled is that Black art is still proving profitable at the box office. One of Them Days, starring Keke Palmer and SZA, was one of the early hits of the year, grossing $51 million against a $14 million budget. 

One of the biggest movies of the year, Sinners, was an original, R-rated horror film with a Black director, Ryan Coogler, and a predominantly Black cast. Sinners opened to $48 million in April and made $45 million the following week, becoming the third-lowest second weekend drop in film history. 

The numbers don’t lie: Black stories sell. All studios have to do is make them easily accessible and ensure the audience is aware of their existence.

I saw Sinners three times in IMAX, and it was amazing seeing the kids, parents, aunties, uncs, and grandmas come out to support Black cinema. The amount of older Black women I would hear say something along the lines of “I never watch horror movies, but I had to support” warmed my heart and brought back childhood memories. 

I saw Highest 2 Lowest at 2:40 p.m. on a Friday, and that theater was full of Black people (mostly retirees, I will admit) who showed up to see Denzel. Black audiences will support Black films. We are one of the most reliable audiences because we know that if we don’t support ourselves, no one will. 

At a time when movies are making less and less at the box office, maybe studios should lean into the audience that consistently shows up to support instead of burying our stories to please an audience that’s not checking for them anyway. 

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