To wit – Borat mastermind and all-around comedic genius Sacha Baron Cohen originally planned to release the sequel theatrically through Universal before it ultimately landed at Amazon for a price tag of reportedly $80 million.

As reported by Deadline, Baron Cohen was pushing to have Borat Subsequent Moviefilm in theaters before the election, but Universal was understandably gunshy considering the fact that the pandemic still has most theaters at very limited capacity if not closed outright, leaving box office receipts downright anemic.

So the studio allowed Baron Cohen to shop his extremely timely sequel around to several streamers before Amazon threw down its $80 million gauntlet (it’s unclear exactly which were involved, but it’s a safe bet that Netflix and Apple were among the outlets bidding on the film)