The journey from streaming service to movie theater has become a familiar one in recent years, though it is usually traveled by prestige dramas hoping to remind Academy voters that they exist. Now a hockey romance is making the trip, which suggests either that the theatrical experience is being redefined or that someone at Regal Cinemas has been reading fan fiction. (Or perhaps both.)
Sphere Abacus, the Bell Media distribution arm, announced Thursday that "Heated Rivalry," the Canadian series about two professional hockey players engaged in what the publicity materials delicately call "a complicated situationship," will receive limited theatrical screenings beginning Nov. 6. The series, which airs on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the United States, will be shown in marathon format across 650 theaters, including Regal, AMC and Cinemark locations.
The announcement comes after what distributors described as speculation on social media throughout the week, a phrase that in 2024 generally means "we leaked it strategically and watched the engagement metrics."
Fans will be able to revisit the six-episode first season across three paired screenings, at $9.99 per installment. Regal locations will offer themed cocktails — Summer in Montreal and Russians Don't Blush — which is the sort of detail that tells you everything you need to know about how seriously the distributor is taking its audience.
"Heated Rivalry is a global phenomenon," Hana Palmer, Sphere Abacus's executive director of global distribution and partnerships, said in a statement, employing the word "phenomenon" in its contemporary marketing sense.
The series, based on Rachel Reid's novel and part of her Game Changers book series, stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as rivals whose competition extends beyond the ice. A second season is currently filming in Toronto.
Whether hockey romances belong on forty-foot screens is a question the marketplace will answer soon enough. The popcorn, at least, will be familiar.
Original story published in The Hollywood Reporter: "Yes, 'Heated Rivalry' is Really Headed to Movie Theaters"