Warner Bros. Will Release All Its 2021 Movies on HBO Max
by EG
Warner Bros. announced this week that it will release all of its 2021 movies directly to HBO Max at the same time the films hit theaters. The announcement involves 17 movies, including a sequel to The Matrix and The Suicide Squad. This attempt to deal with the pandemic could forever change the way Americans watch movies, and it could be major bad news for theaters. Read on for details.
Warner Bros. is plotting a sweeping response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has shuttered movie theaters around the country. After announcing that Wonder Woman 1984 will go to HBO Max as well as theaters on Dec. 25, the studio has laid out a similar path for its 2021 slate amid uncertainty about when movie-going will get back to normal.
The studio announced Thursday day-and-date releases for its 17-film slate, which will hit HBO Max for a one-month window that starts the same day they will be available in U.S. theaters.
The studio's 2021 slate includes projects such as The Suicide Squad, The Matrix 4, Dune, Godzilla vs. Kong and Space Jam: A New Legacy. Other films include Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah, Tom & Jerry, Mortal Kombat, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, In The Heights, Reminiscence, Malignant, The Many Saints of Newark, King Richard and Cry Macho.
The unprecedented move is likely to catch theater owners off guard and upsets a model that has been in place for decades. Warner Bros. stresses that these are pandemic-only rules, but once something is broken, can you really put it back together again? This also raises serious concerns about the landscape of movie-going in 2021.
Toby Emmerich, Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman, argued the move would be good for the theatrical business in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
"It allows us to do a global release and a national release in what we think is going to be a checkerboarded theatrical market place for the bulk of 2021," Emmerich told THR. "We think where theaters are open, and consumers can go, that a lot of people will choose to go to the theater, especially for big movies."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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