by Conan Simmons – December 3, 2020 – 8:28 pm
Major news coming out of Hollywood today as Warner Bros. studios announces that all new releases for 2021 will be made available on HBO Max day-and-date with theatrical release in the U.S.
Among the films that Warner Bros. has scheduled for release next year are highly anticipated sequels and reboots. ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’, ‘Matrix 4’, ‘The Suicide Squad’, ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’, ‘Mortal Kombat’, ‘Tom & Jerry’, ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’, and ‘Dune’ are all expected to hit the streaming service along with ‘The Sopranos’ prequel film, ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ and the musical, ‘In the Heights’.
Warner Bros. has already announced that ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ will be released on HBO Max along with theaters on Christmas Day.
The studio, in a statement made today, claims “The hybrid model was created as a strategic response to the impact of the ongoing global pandemic.” Films released on HBO Max day-and-date in 2021 will remain on the streaming service for 31 days, afterwards the movies will be unavailable on the service while still playing in theaters.
As HBO Max is not widely available outside of the United States this release strategy is expected to be domestic only.
Warner Bros. released the Christopher Nolan sci-fi film ‘Tenet’ into what theaters were open back in August. Though the movie did well overseas it underperformed in the United States where most theaters remained closed.
After the United States Supreme Court overturned the historic 1948 case, United States v. Paramount, et al. at the beginning of August this year, it lifted the ban on movie studios owning movie theaters in order to prevent a monopoly of production-distribution-exhibition. It was considered a defunct law after the rise of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, which mostly bypassed theatrical exhibition completely. Now, with it obsolete, it is unlikely to be used as precedent to prevent major movie studios like Warner Bros. and Disney from moving their films directly onto studio owned streaming services.
Netflix faced years of opposition from theater exhibitors who objected to movies being made available day-and-date. Amazon too faced similar objections but was able to skirt the opposition by having the influence of established film executives, such as Ted Hope, to sway exhibitors into allowing them in. Both Netflix and Amazon finally gained acceptance in the last couple of years and now, with irony, the original film studios are trying to be more like Netflix and Amazon.
This past July Universal made a major change to distribution when it negotiated a deal with AMC theaters to show movies 17 days after theatrical release. Then in August, Disney announced that the already delayed historical film ‘Mulan’ would premiere directly on the company’s streaming service Disney+. The streaming service cost $10/month and customers would be charged another $30 to watch the new release.
HBO Max is not expected to charge anything over the normal subscription fee for customers to view the new releases.
This new release strategy from Warner Bros. comes at a devastating time for movie theaters. Many theaters in New York City and Los Angeles (the preferred bread-and-butter markets for Hollywood) are still closed due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic. Regal cinemas have elected to stay closed for the remainder of 2020 and AMC theaters just today issued 200 million shares of stock on the NYSE to raise enough money to stay open for the next six months.
Many in Hollywood and beyond are fretting that this is the end for theatrical exhibition. Changes are inevitable and major shakeups are no doubt in the mail, however, much as the Paramount Consent decrees of 1948, this could be a big opportunity for smaller independent filmmakers and studios able to cut deals with theaters starving for content.
Warner Bros. studios, a subsidiary of WarnerMedia, may have made the drastic decision of this release strategy in response to financial strain brought about by the Covid-19 crisis. Last year the studio began major reconstruction to their lot in anticipation for the studio’s 100 year anniversary coming up in 2023.
Another reason for the strategy is likely coming from AT&T, the parent company of WarnerMedia, which is seeking to restructure the studio by cutting up to 7% of employees and focusing its brand on HBO Max. Some major changes this year involve top studio executives leaving the company. JP Richards, co-president of worldwide marketing, announced he will be leaving the company early next year. Likewise, the president of worldwide marketing, Blair Rich, recently left the company after 23 years, guiding marketing campaigns for some of the studios biggest hits, from ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy to the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise.
Rumors circling Blair Rich’s departure involve a not-so-productive relationship with Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman, Toby Emmerich. The official word is Rich left on her own accord and Emmerich even put out a kind word wishing her the best of luck on her future endeavors. This isn’t the only controversy Toby Emmerich is involved in at the studio.
Ray Fisher, the actor who played Cyborg in 2017’s comic book adaptation ‘Justice League’, has been accusing the director Joss Whedon along with the films producers, Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, of unprofessional behavior and racism on the set of the big budget flop. The accusations have been flying back and forth for months and recently wrangled Toby Emmerich in when he too was accused of unprofessional behavior. A third party investigation is currently ongoing.
As the films original director, Zack Snyder has returned to rework the film into his original vision for HBO Max, at least one of the films co-stars, Jason Mamoa has voiced support for Ray Fisher. Snyder was replaced during filming in 2016 after a family tragedy.
As AT&T aims to cut out scandal from WarnerMedia and Warner Bros. studios they are eager to wrap up the investigation.
Joss Whedon recently and unexpectedly announced his departure from the upcoming HBO Max series, ‘The Nevers’, a project he has been working on for the last couple of years. As that may signal the cleanup of one scandal unfortunately, for AT&T, there is another scandal at Warner Bros.
The very messy and public divorce of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard resulted in numerous lawsuits. One of those lawsuits made enough of a problem for the studio to force Depp to drop out of the upcoming ‘Fantastic Beasts’ sequel that is already filming in England. The backlash to Depp’s being fired incurred the wrath of social media and a petition, signed by nearly two million people, to have Amber Heard fired from Warner Bros. upcoming film ‘Aquaman 2’ where she co-stars as Mera alongside Jason Mamoa’s eponymous character.
With more than enough problems going around at Warner Bros. the announcement of releasing big budget tentpole movies day-and-date on streaming looks to be a studio specific situation and not, as many doomsayers cry, the end of cinema.
Not the end, but if this works, nothing is going to be the same ever again.
More shakeups are expected. Legendary is on the brink of suing WB, more production companies will follow suit. Given WB current financial strain this will only cause them more pain, meaning some films may likely move to Netflix or AppleTV in exchange for better deals. WB agreed to pay ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ filmmakers the bonuses they would have received if the film made 1 billion in theaters in exchange for putting the film on HBO Max. WB did not give that deal to the other films that are part of the 2021 deal, nor did they give more than a 2 hour notice to them that they were changing the deal before it was announced. If anything WarnerMedia will use this as a huge tax write-off for losses incurred next year.