The Musk Documentary Vanished From 472 Screens In a Week — Here's What We Know

Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour documentary about Elon Musk was supposed to land on 472 screens nationwide on October 16. By the following week, it was essentially gone. Distributor Bleecker Street pulled the film after a single weekend, leaving — as far as trade press can tell — just one venue still showing it: the Angelika Film Center & Cafe in New York City.

That is an extraordinary retreat for any release. For a long-form documentary, it’s nearly unheard of.

The Setup Looked Promising

Gibney isn’t a newcomer to the electric car story. He served as consulting producer on Chris Paine’s 2006 “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, the film that took General Motors to task for crushing its EV1 sedans after a brief, low-volume lease program. Paine closed that movie with a shot of a Tesla prototype, and followed it with 2011’s “Revenge of the Electric Car.” Musk himself praised that sequel on social media back in 2019, calling it a great documentary about Tesla’s early days alongside the GM Volt and Nissan Leaf.

So Gibney had the pedigree. “Musk” promised interviews with the mothers of the entrepreneur’s many children and a look at his rise from lead investor in a tiny EV startup to a role in the federal government’s budget-cutting office. Bleecker Street reportedly planned a wide release — unusual for a film running 3 hours and 52 minutes.

Then it wasn’t.

Timing Quirks: The Hollywood Reporter revealed on October 15 that Bleecker Street had been sold to a firm backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar — one day before the Musk film’s wide opening.

A Sale, a Family Connection, and a Lot of Coincidence

The new owner, Outerlight, also backs the romance-focused streamer Passionflix, which is run by Musk’s sister Tosca. Whether that has any bearing on the film’s fate is anyone’s guess — Gibney’s movie simply stopped expanding.

Meanwhile, Semafor reported that Musk has put $1 billion into Skydance, the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery combination that now controls CNN, CBS News, HBO and Paramount+. Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Musk’s longtime ally, is the other billionaire behind the deal; investor John Malone suggested Ellison used his Tesla stock holdings to raise the cash — and that he financed the Twitter takeover too.

Observers are already watching for a closer tie-up between Skydance and Musk’s Starlink satellite network.

What Happens After the Midterms

Competitive pressure was real as well. Nathan Fielder’s new documentary on Elizabeth Holmes arrived in theaters at the same moment, armed with an R rating and plenty of attention. Gibney’s film walked into a crowded room.

Its prospects may improve later. If Republicans lose their grip on Congress in November, Democrats would take over oversight work that has been sitting idle — and Musk, given his government role and his private ventures, is already a prime target. A fresh round of hearings could revive interest in the documentary.

There’s newer material too. Last week brought widespread criticism of how SpaceX’s Starlink and Starshield services were used during Ukraine’s defense against Russian attacks — a subject the film doesn’t cover at all. A sequel, some are joking, may already be in order.

For now, though, the answer to “who killed the Elon Musk movie?” isn’t a billionaire. It’s a distributor that changed its mind.