Jon Stewart Political Comedy ‘Irresistible’ Heading To PVOD This Summer

Here’s another notable theatrical release to hit PVOD due to COVID-19: Focus Features’ Jon Stewart-directed political comedy Irresistible. Originally scheduled for a May 29 theatrical release, the Steve Carell-Rose Byrne-Chris Cooper movie now will play in homes starting Friday, June 26.

Irresistible will be available for the 48-hour rental price of $19.99 on such platforms as Amazon, Apple, Comcast, DirecTV, Fandango, Google/YouTube, Charter/Spectrum, Verizon, Microsoft, Dish, Sony, Cox, Altice, Vudu, Frontier and Row8.

There’s also the possibility, I hear, that the movie will still play theatrically starting the weekend of June 26, in those cinemas that are open.

Irresistible follows a Democrat political consultant (Carell) who helps a retired Marine colonel (Cooper) run for mayor in a small Wisconsin town. Part of the rush to get the movie out there stems from the timeliness of the current election year and releasing Irresistible before this summer’s Democratic and Republican conventions. Watch a featurette for the film below.

The movie reps Stewart’s second feature directorial after 2014’s Rosewater, which told the story of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari who was accused and brutally interrogated by Iranian forces for being a spy. Stewart wrote Irresistible and produced with Lila Yacoub and Plan B Entertainment’s Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. Mackenzie Davis, Topher Grace and Natasha Lyonne also star.

Irresistible is the second Focus Features title this year to go to PVOD after Nisha Ganatra’s The High Note, which is premiering in homes on May 29, and it’s the fourth Universal title overall following DreamWorks Animation’s $100M-grossing Trolls World Tour and the Judd Apatow-Pete Davidson comedy The King of Staten Island on June 12. In its TV campaign, The High Note is receiving a push on par with a theatrical release. The temporary relaxing of AMPAS and Golden Globe awards season theatrical eligibility rules during the current COVID-19 year also makes it feasible for studios to continue to campaign prestige titles.