Was this ever released
What's the deal with a lot of big name stars making a ton of movies that never see the light of day in a movie theater? are they all VOD? why is this the current trend?
share"Barely Lethal" did make it to theaters, but only in limited release. It died quickly, due to bad reviews and audience indifference.
As far as some movies, even ones with well-known actors, never making it to theaters, there can be a number of reasons for that. Most movies have multiple advance test screenings, where test audiences rate specific scenes in a movie and the movie overall. If those screenings don't go well, the movie might never be released theatrically. The advertising and other costs of releasing movies can by high, and if the distributors or producers don't think they will get their money back, they often just don't release the movies. There can be other factors involved, too, but it all boils down to whether or not the people who made the movies think they will make money. Sometimes they just cut their losses and release the movies only on disk and/or on demand.
In this case, I think they were smart in not releasing it theatrically. They will get some of their money back in DVD and Blu-ray sales and rentals, but I doubt if it would have made any money in theaters. It just wasn't that good. The "female teenage assassin/spy" genre has been burnt out, and this didn't add anything new to ether that theme or the "teenage high school angst" genre. It was pleasant enough to watch at home, but I would have been unhappy to have spent money to have seen it in a theater.