Where can I watch "Happiest Season" in Canada?
The Christmas-themed romantic comedy Happiest Season, featuring an ensemble cast including Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Victor Garber, Dan Levy, and Aubrey Plaza (among several others), was released in the United States on Hulu on Wednesday, November 25, 2020.
The film is now available for streaming in Canada on Prime Video, for no extra charge to Amazon Prime subscribers, as of Wednesday, December 9. Other digital rental and purchase options (which were offered the day after the U.S. release) remain available, as explained below.
Despite the no-extra-charge streaming release in the U.S., it initially appeared that the film's Canadian distributor, Entertainment One (a.k.a. eOne) – which jointly produced the film with Sony's TriStar Pictures – had chosen not to go with a simultaneous release via a subscription streaming service. EOne's official, verified Twitter account said the film would be "available to rent or buy on [Thursday] November 26".
Bringing someone home over the holidays? What could go wrong? Watch Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Mary Steenburgen, Victor Garber, Aubrey Plaza and Dan Levy in @HappiestSeason, available to rent or buy on November 26th. 🎄❄️🎁🥂 pic.twitter.com/LKPNLX6mlK
— eOne Films (@eOnefilms) November 9, 2020
Indeed, Happiest Season is now available for digital rental or purchase in Canada through digital stores like the Apple TV (iTunes) Store, Cineplex Store, and Google Play Store, plus cable and IPTV providers' video-on-demand services. As of this update, Google Play is showing the cheapest rental and purchase options – $4.99 to rent and $9.99 to buy – but you may want to shop around to ensure you're getting the best value for your setup.
However, on November 27, a couple of other reliable media outlets reported that Happiest Season would be available on Prime Video Canada, at no extra charge to Amazon Prime subscribers, on Wednesday, December 9.
Although we initially expected the wait to be much longer, we're not surprised it's landing on Prime Video, which for the past several years has held the Canadian "pay-1" rights to theatrical films distributed by eOne. That's how movies like Booksmart, Long Shot and Vice have ended up on the Amazon streaming service, at no extra charge to Amazon Prime subscribers. However, in those cases, they didn't drop on Prime Video until several months after they'd left Canadian theatres (and after they'd been available for on-demand rentals for a few of those months).
Significant revisions
- December 10, 2020: Updated to reflect availability on Prime Video.
- November 27, 2020: Noting Prime Video Canada's announcement that it will carry the film starting December 9. Removed a few paragraphs that are no longer pertinent due to that announcement.
Correction: A previous version of this article suggested that November 25 is a Thursday and thus that the 26th is a Friday. In fact the 25th is a Wednesday. We regret the error.