Christopher Nolan Slams HBO Max
by EG
Tenet director Christopher Nolan isn't happy with a new deal that will send Warner Bros. 2021 movies directly to HBO Max at the same time they debut in theaters. Nolan called HBO Max "the worst streaming service" (which it isn't) and conveniently overlooked the business fact that his latest huge-budget movie was a major flop in US theaters constrained by the coronavirus pandemic. Read on for details.
For many in the movie business — producers, directors, stars and their representatives — Dec. 3, 2020, marked an infamous milestone.
“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,” filmmaker Christopher Nolan, whose relationship with Warners dates back to Insomnia in 2002, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Added Nolan: “Warner Bros. had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere, both in theaters and in the home, and they are dismantling it as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense, and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”
Christopher Nolan's 'Tenet,' distributed by Warner Bros., grossed $359 million worldwide and $57.6 million in the U.S.
On that now-infamous morning, Ann Sarnoff — whose ungainly title is chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group — and Warner Bros. film studio chairman Toby Emmerich called the heads of the major agencies to drop a bombshell: Warners was about to smash the theatrical window, sweeping its entire 17-picture 2021 film slate onto its faltering HBO Max streaming service, debuting them on the same day they would open in whatever theaters could admit customers.
Surprisingly to some in the industry, sources say the idea was the brainchild of Warner Bros. COO Carolyn Blackwood who, looking at a relatively weak 2021 slate, saw an opportunity to avoid the humiliation of potentially bad grosses while currying favor with streamer-obsessed higher-ups.
The instant response in Hollywood was outrage and a massive girding for battle. “Warners has made a grave mistake,” says one top talent agent.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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