Warner Bros. to Debut EVERY 2021 Theatrical Movie Simultaneously on HBO Max

[AndyDursin]

This is one way to get people to buy your streaming service.

What's interesting is it allows every movie to run on HBO Max for a month but then follow the usual pattern, still playing in theaters, and then presumably go to video, etc.

This is a huge sacrifice here by WB, but it's an interesting gambit. If they figure theaters will never be back at 100% in 2021, this enables them to still play the movies in theaters but seriously invest in making HBO MAX a "thing" (it's struggled so far) while following the typical distribution lifespan of a new, big theatrical movie.

Unlike past movies that have been sent to the streaming services, this is a massive happening that could change the industry. Nobody has sent their A grade tentpoles to streaming before. Whether it's just a one-off (which they say it is), time will tell.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/warn ... 234845342/

[Monterey Jack]

If I were a theater owner, I'd be getting out the torches and pitchforks right now.

[Monterey Jack]

Frequent moviegoers who cherish the big screen experience be like...

[Eric Paddon]

Which then leads to this.

[Monterey Jack]

I am unbearably depressed right now.

[AndyDursin]

Well, why not just take the 20% off the six months of HBO Max. I'm just waiting for it to hit Roku, this move today was apparently a pre-emptive bargaining move by Warner/AT&T in that regard:

https://www.hbomax.com/?utm_id=sa%7c717 ... lsrc=aw.ds

[Monterey Jack]

Contemplating a bleak landscape bereft of proper cinema...

[Johnmgm]

HBO Max needs all the help it can get. The brain cells behind it need to be gone. If you can't make a success of your streaming service during a pandemic, you will never make a success of your streaming service.

[AndyDursin]

This is true and it's clearly an all in. That being said we just had a free 3 month sub of HBO itself on Directv and there was absolutely not one thing on it she or I ever watched. The original programming, some Lovecraft Country show and the doc series on the "Smallville sex ring", was barren. The movies were the same tired fare from the last 10 years mostly. One days programming then repeated for a two week stretch etc.

HBO Max seemed designed to say "hey we've got Game of Thrones" as if people are going to perpetually stream it the same way they do "The Office". Clearly that wasnt good enough.

[AndyDursin]

AMC unsurprisingly irate but nothing they can do here. This part of the article is spot on:

It’s been headed this way for awhile but theaters are going to have to continue differentiate themselves with amenities that you cannot replicate at home — enormous screens with crystal clear picture, immersive sound, 3D, and a communal experience that makes it worth paying extra money and leaving the house. I believe that theaters to some extent will figure this out, but there’s also going to be some inevitably painful restructuring along the way.

If by "restructuring" they mean "give a bleep" I heartily agree.

To some degree they made this bed while home theater tech has matched or surpassed their "movie going experience".

[BobaMike]

Doesn't HBO max have all the Warner Bros cartoons and all the TCM stuff? Comcast got rid of TCM, so that'd be the stuff I'd be interested in.

We did sign up for Hulu on black Friday, couldn't pass up the 25 bucks for the year deal. Looking at getting rid of comcast after I see what the new rates are in Jan.

[Paul MacLean]

If by "restructuring" they mean "give a bleep" I heartily agree.

I was impressed a few years ago when our local cinema added those recliners.

But they have a ways to go.

If first-run pictures are offered via streaming simultaneously with theatrical exhibition, I'm staying home. Ok, I might see a movie as a "social night out" with friends, but for the most part I'll go with the home experience. Cheaper, no six-dollar sodas or nine-dollar popcorns, no Chester Chatterboxes, whiney kids, or obnoxious teens on their phones, a guaranteed clear view of the screen, etc.

Moreover, if "hydraulic 5-D seating" is their gimmick to lure people back into cinemas, then I'm definitely staying home!

[AndyDursin]

Doesn't HBO max have all the Warner Bros cartoons and all the TCM stuff? Comcast got rid of TCM, so that'd be the stuff I'd be interested in.

As far as I know, the TCM online streaming content was indeed folded into HBO Max, but I think the only Looney Tunes cartoons are some new shorts that have been produced for the service.

Either way, neither of those things are going to bring in big numbers of new subscribers -- it's all about new content. It's why Netflix and Amazon produce so much programming, trying to find shows that stick and paying for movie exclusives. Unless it's THE OFFICE or FRIENDS, the older series mostly have a limit on viewership numbers, plus the services typically don't OWN them.

The real profit comes in producing content of their own, as opposed to licensing old movies and TV series from another studio. Those things generate eyeballs to an extent and can help the subscriber base, but it's not where the big money is.

HBO Max is struggling in the same way CBS All-Access has. If there's not something new and compelling there, people aren't going to shell out for the service. Putting your A-grade studio product online will tilt the marketplace for sure, but if I were AT&T, I'd be trying to figure out NOW how to position HBO Max so it keeps people subscribing into 2022 after this one-off run of big 2021 theatrical movies expire.

[AndyDursin]

If first-run pictures are offered via streaming simultaneously with theatrical exhibition, I'm staying home. Ok, I might see a movie as a "social night out" with friends, but for the most part I'll go with the home experience. Cheaper, no six-dollar sodas or nine-dollar popcorns, no Chester Chatterboxes, whiney kids, or obnoxious teens on their phones, a guaranteed clear view of the screen, etc.

Moreover, if "hydraulic 5-D seating" is their gimmick to lure people back into cinemas, then I'm definitely staying home!

Failure to innovate has long been a key ingredient in overall theater attendance decline. Of course I remember when this local multiplex near me used to only have a certain amount of screens in stereo. I used to call up on a Friday morning to find out what showing of a movie would be in "a good theater" and make our plans accordingly.

Sometimes I had no option -- I mean I saw BRAVEHEART in mono because it was the only screen it was playing on! And that was 1996 so it wasn't that long ago. There was also a theater, all the way down on the end, that you never wanted to go to...it had "wavy sound" that made every movie score sound like an LP played back at the wrong speed.

They updated everything to stereo in this Showcase Cinemas complex around 1998 or so and added digital projection but that's been it. My TV has better color and my sound system is as good as most every theater they have. The only exception is the real estate of the large screens they have in 3 of the auditoriums. Otherwise, my home theater bested every screen in their building years ago.

Again, I feel bad for a small business owner and not one of these larger chains...for them, I feel just as strongly they made this bed and took the audience they had for granted, and this is them paying the price for the home experience surpassing them.

[AndyDursin]

The move to put the studio’s entire 2021 slate on HBO Max at the same time as theaters is “an appropriate decision for the moment we’re in,” Stankey said in an interview streamed on the Washington Post website. “Hey, we have a bunch of movies that are ready to go, and they’ve been sitting on the shelf.”

Who's going to disagree with this? He's completely right. Wonder Woman should've been out end of 2019. These other movies can't sit there until 2022 and then all get released at the same time once "the coast is clear". That wouldn't make any sense, they will cannibalize each other.

They tried to see what TENET would do, and the rollout failed, so this is a better model going forward from any sane business perspective.

The comments are at the 43 minute mark:



https://deadline.com/2020/12/att-john-s ... 234650649/