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Hindsight is... 20/20 *Okay in all seriousness though, how were they to predict this first of a kind incident since the dawn of movie theatres? The way they saw it, WW84's legs would be cut by Frozen 2 and SW9 and more importantly, it was too close to Joker. June 2020 seemed like the perfect summer date, taking the same spot as the previous film. In some ways, Joker's win turned out to be WW84's loss.

James Cameron finds a 100% effective vaccine for COVID at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, he then ensures that every human on the planet is given the vaccine. Every vaccine contains a microchip that embeds itself in the shoulder of the inoculated person and periodically whispers “Go see Avatar 2, in theatres and IMAX, Christmas 2022”. Everyone complies to silence the microchip. Avatar 2 makes a billion trillion dollars.

Disney+ has already far exceeded Disney's expectations unlike HBO Max which AT&T seems to sacrifice everything for atm. Everyone complains about Disney's dominance but would be funny if they remained more committed to theatrical releases because of that.

...Which won't be until late spring, early summer, at best, for the general U.S. population... and these are just the people that will agree to take it. So that's half the year gone, at least, without any confidence in cinemas by a majority of the general public. A 2021 Plan for Warner Bros.' films is set. Time will tell if AT&T/Warners' move here is prophetic for the rest of studios...or a panicky response. They made their bed...now let's see what lies in it... Historic move, nonetheless!

Idk why you're assuming a pivot to streaming will even be a straight up success for these studios.

Low key I kind of hope for this at this point. Theatrical experience is more important than the fate of any one individual movie.

Hate to say it, but 5 billies may not be in the cards anymore.

Yes, Disney trumps everything both at the box office and in terms of brand/library appeal to the average consumer. No question about that. I just feel like AT&T put together a pretty half-assed launch for HBO Max. An example of missing content: how about items like Batman: The Animated Series? Best cartoon ever and the bastards failed to include it so far. In terms of classic movies, you would have a really hard time beating Warner's archives. But so far they have only put the really obvious stuff out there like Casablanca, Wizard of Oz, etc. How about unleashing all of it, wh

And what the actual fuck, r/boxoffice is blaming Chris Nolan and Tenet for this. Tenet was in no way a big enough flop to justify this kind of stupid strategy,

DOM theaters are in serious trouble now. I expect the national theater count to drop below 2k next year. Many won't survive this. As for streaming services, WB and HBO are part of a conglomerate. I think this will fuel Disney to do the same thing with D+. Netflix, Amazon, etc are going to be competing for talent for their own content even more now. Consumers are either going to have to pick and choose what to watch, or subscribe to a bunch of different streaming services. Entertainment fragmentation and micro-targeting of audiences ramps up further. That's definitely coming

This is so fucking stupid. Even Disney (who has a much more successful streaming service) is smart enough to know that ditching theatrical so soon is a pretty short-sighted move that will destroy their ecosystem.

Feige isn’t going to follow WB like a lemming, this is as unlikely to go D+ as it was yesterday. The only option I might entertain is some kind of mixed theatrical+premiere access model.

Wtf. Extreme move. Wb guys took my post way too seriously. Matrix 4 on HBO max?! Wtf?! These streaming wars have absolutely ruined everything. Covid19 is just an excuse now.

Can they invent a special Oscar just for WB this year for being the studio that handled the pandemic the worst?

Anyone catch this bit? Don't think it was posted here... In the case of “Wonder Woman 1984,” insiders say that Gadot and director Patty Jenkins received generous backend deals after agreeing to send the film to HBO Max. https://variety.com/2020/film/news/coronavirus-movie-theaters-release-dates-1234842520/

They should've just released it in late 2019. The decision to move it to 2020 gets more idiotic as time passes

It probably won't...but it will be less bad than being flat-footed when it all crashes... Napster and then its crash (and the industries crash) didn't help the music studios, but they sure did better off than, say, Tower Records, did... If you see a crash coming, you wanna avoid it as much as possible, even if you still take some damage...

This is a very simple way at looking at consumer behaviour, with nothing to back it up. There are also millions of people who go to cinemas every year. At a very slow rate. It doesn't justify a rapid pivot to streaming. People have been moving away from movies in general (in favour of more personalized content, ie. youtube, gaming streams, insta/snapchat, tiktok, etc) for years too. Should studios stop making movies too then?

I think movie theaters will be almost extinct in about ten years. This is definitely going to change the landscape. I think high budgeted tv shows like what we got with Game of Thrones and what we are currently getting with Mandalorian will become the norm and instead of a dozen 200m movies a year we will only get two or three. With these moves it is very clear by now that these streaming services are far more important to the studios than theaters are. And there is no way this isn't going to continue past 2021.

Yes. Nothing is off the table now, especially after today's news. But Disney won't announce this anytime soon, so that they don't look like "followers." But when May comes around, I'm betting 99% that this will be the reality - a simultaneous availability. It would be there in a couple of months, anyway, so...

Not surprising WB made this move after the latest round of covid relief talks. There is just no hint at all that relief is coming for theaters either now or after Biden takes office and any package will be much smaller than expected not more expansive. And the political influence in the upcoming administration is coming from the Silicon Valley side not the Hollywood side. Studios have to finally start pricing downside risk into their revenue models and not assume everything goes back to 2019 on Jan 20th or the summer. Also, they where about to have a year of HBO with basically

OMG.....All of it? I just saw the HBO Max teaser. MATRIX 4 straight to Streaming? It's really happening. Technology has been moving so fast since I was a kid. It's just crazy to see the evolution happening this quickly. Consumers just have to many entertainment choices in this world. Hollywood is starting to adapt clearly. But Everything? The whole slate? This is huge news. I predicted this day to Friends over a decade ago. I said there will be a time people will choose Blockbusters like PPV and having screening parties with friends. That's a huge marketing rollout. OK Wa

Can't go theatrical if movie theaters don't exist anymore

HBO Max was a mistake.

This was apparently a decision from the higher ups at AT&T. They’re desperately trying to stop HBO Max from sinking.

Holy! That is news...that's a gauntlet thrown at every streaming service...and a not welcome sign to all DOM theaters...

Could it be some other third thing? 👀

Back in August WB were seen as the saviour of theatres...this is surely the real life version of “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” in the eyes of exhibitors. Good luck getting people to pay cinema prices again in 2022 after a year of paying $15 a month. This will have after effects long after COVID.

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jon M. Chu must be pissed as hell right now after how enthusiastically they've been talking about In the Heights this year and saying they wanted people to experience it in theaters. WB is gonna have a ton of problems booking talent if big names vow to never work with the studio again.

I HATE this.

Nobody plans on a pandemic happening. This and a whole bunch of other movies were just unfortunate enough to be caught in the crosshairs.

@cayommagazine Brad Bird (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Incredibles) has been hired by Endless Entertainment to helm a new original spy thriller. Said to inspired by the Mission Impossible series, not much is known. Henry Golding though has been casted as the lead.

As I said, it probably doesn't change much for you guys if this goes to HBO Max. The movie will still get a theatrical release in Germany and Singapore, unless the countries gets HBO Max by then, which I doubt. Will only affect America, and maybe Latin America and Nordic countries if it launches there by May next year. You guys only have to be worried if this goes to Netflix.