I don't think that's entirely fair here. A 36% leap in just one month seems like a pretty strong increase to me, especially for a service that started out pretty rocky, though admittedly it is hard to do comparisons from month to month with this kind of stuff.
And since December, we've only had one subscriber update in January and nothing else since then. Not really a good sample to definitively say the day-and-date strategy isn't working. And just judging by the iOS charts, where HBO Max is currently #1, ahead of YouTube and TikTok and whatnot, it seems like people are eager to watch this movie both at home and in theaters.
I'd prefer to wait until the next subscriber update before saying Max isn't gaining much from this strategy.
This is CJohn. He's always doing a dumb bit. Just let him do his thing and he'll tire himself out eventually