Warner Bros. to Debut Entire 2021 Film Slate, Including ‘Dune’ and ‘Matrix 4,’ Both on HBO Max and In Theaters (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Warner Bros. to Debut Entire 2021 Film Slate, Including ‘Dune’ and ‘Matrix 4,’ Both on HBO Max and In Theaters

‘Matrix 4,’ ‘Dune,’ and the entire 2021 Warner Bros slate will debut on HBO Max and in theaters in a one-year plan due to the pandemic.

variety.com

Very interesting. Wonder if this is going to kill theaters off? I would think with the pandemic, most will choose to watch these streamed on services they are already subscribed to.

 

[TravisR]

The nightmare scenario for movie theaters. Every other studio is going to follow suit, theaters will die off in the coming years and movies will be changed for the worse forever.

And anyone that doubts that should stop by their local Blockbuster to see how well brick and mortar exists with streaming.

 

[Wayne_j]

This would be very bad for theaters that are trying to recover if the pandemic is over by July due to vaccinations.

 

[TravisR]

This would be very bad for theaters that are trying to recover if the pandemic is over by July due to vaccinations.

If Regal closed down now, will they even reopen? But don't worry, AMC is drafting a statement about how good this is for their company.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This would be very bad for theaters that are trying to recover if the pandemic is over by July due to vaccinations.

The pandemic won't be over in 2021, unless most people are vaccinated which is very much in doubt.

 

[Robert Crawford]

To be noted, the HBO Max is only for the first 31 days then the movie is dropped from that service.

 

[Wayne_j]

And moments ago a youtuber that I follow scheduled a livestream titled "Warner Bros. Instigates Seismic Shift Spelling Doom for Theaters".

The same Youtuber has also been a long time producer of DVD and Blu-Ray bonus features.

 

[TravisR]

And moments ago a youtuber that I follow scheduled a livestream titled "Warner Bros. Instigates Seismic Shift Spelling Doom for Theaters".

That's the optimistic take on it.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

To be noted, the HBO Max is only for the first 31 days then the movie is dropped from that service.

Gotcha! Still enough time to watch a first-run release in the comfort of your home.

I am torn in my feelings. I was never one to regularly go to the movies, always waiting for a home video release so this is terrific news that I am not going to pay more to see these films above my subscription price. On the other hand, it's going to be very hard to revive theaters that have been closing in droves with this kind of business model (even though it's only temporary until COVID is over).

 

[Wayne_j]

I wouldn't really object if they kept announcing releases a month or two ahead at a time, it is much too much to announce their entire slate for the year.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If theaters die off, covid won’t be the root cause - it’ll be the final nail in a coffin that had already been built. The covid related problems theaters are facing are merely a symptom of an underlying problem: their business model sucks.

The problem theaters have faced for quite some time now is that they’re no longer the only, best, or most convenient way to see a film. Instead, they are the most expensive and least convenient way to see a film.

It used to be when this industry began that if you didn’t see a movie in theaters, you didn’t see it at all. Then it became, if you didn’t see it in theaters you’d have to wait years to see it on broadcast television in poor quality. Then it became, if you didn’t see it in theaters, you’d have to wait a year to be able to rent a comparatively poor quality tape through an inconvenient process. But now, pre-pandemic, a movie would open in theaters and studios would spend tens or hundreds of millions to convince an audience to see it all at once on opening weekend, perhaps not coincidentally the part of the theatrical run where the theater gets to keep virtually none of the money. Then, it’s available on streaming purchase stores weeks later, and on disc and subscription streaming mere weeks after that. The entire cycle over the past decade has turned into “pay more money to see it right away at a time and place of someone else‘s choosing, or wait three months and see it for free on a service you already have”.

How could theaters possibly survive in that environment without major changes?

But theaters responded not by investing in the theatrical experience to entice a future generation of moviegoers, but by providing a declining quality of service for the majority of their locations, and then changing an arm and a leg extra for the few premium screens they did upgrade. What they should have done was invested to make every auditorium a premium experience and included those improvements in the cost of a regular ticket, as an acknowledgment of the cost of business and the new world they were competing in. But since they got basically nothing from studios for playing the movies, they invested in amenities and concessions they could charge more for. Before the pandemic, I was most frequently visiting a local Regal that hadn’t updated the screens, seating, sound or projection in at least a decade, but had ever more elaborate food, beverage and arcade gaming options.

Will covid be the final nail in the coffin? I don’t know. But covid didn’t start this downward spiral.

As for Warner, I appreciate that they are pursing a business plan during these times of uncertainty that allows those of us who feel compelled to stay home a chance to partake in the same cultural touchstones as those who feel freer to go out to theaters. I don’t want my local theaters to die but if they do it’s the result of decades of poor business choices and not because I decided to be extra cautious during the biggest public health emergency in a century.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Damn, Josh. I so much enjoy reading what you write.

And it always makes perfect sense! You are right! COVID did not start the downward spiral. I stopped going to movie theaters a long time ago because I no longer found it to be an enjoyable experience. For me, a plethora of movie ads without passing the savings on ticket prices killed it for me.

 

[Jake Lipson]

To be noted, the HBO Max is only for the first 31 days then the movie is dropped from that service.

That doesn't matter. No one who wants to watch a movie really badly is going to wait until day #32. Everyone who wants to see something at home will do so well before they rotate off.

 

[Robert Crawford]

That doesn't matter. No one who wants to watch a movie really badly is going to wait until day #32. Everyone who wants to see something at home will do so well before they rotate off.

I respectfully disagree because many people don't really keep up with this type of timelines regarding movies and their availability.

 

[JohnRice]

If theaters die off, covid won’t be the root cause - it’ll be the final nail in a coffin that had already been built. The covid related problems theaters are facing are merely a symptom of an underlying problem: their business model sucks.

The problem theaters have faced for quite some time now is that they’re no longer the only, best, or most convenient way to see a film. Instead, they are the most expensive and least convenient way to see a film.

It used to be when this industry began that if you didn’t see a movie in theaters, you didn’t see it at all. Then it became, if you didn’t see it in theaters you’d have to wait years to see it on broadcast television in poor quality. Then it became, if you didn’t see it in theaters, you’d have to wait a year to be able to rent a comparatively poor quality tape through an inconvenient process. But now, pre-pandemic, a movie would open in theaters and studios would spend tens or hundreds of millions to convince an audience to see it all at once on opening weekend, perhaps not coincidentally the part of the theatrical run where the theater gets to keep virtually none of the money. Then, it’s available on streaming purchase stores weeks later, and on disc and subscription streaming mere weeks after that. The entire cycle over the past decade has turned into “pay more money to see it right away at a time and place of someone else‘s choosing, or wait three months and see it for free on a service you already have”.

How could theaters possibly survive in that environment without major changes?

But theaters responded not by investing in the theatrical experience to entice a future generation of moviegoers, but by providing a declining quality of service for the majority of their locations, and then changing an arm and a leg extra for the few premium screens they did upgrade. What they should have done was invested to make every auditorium a premium experience and included those improvements in the cost of a regular ticket, as an acknowledgment of the cost of business and the new world they were competing in. But since they got basically nothing from studios for playing the movies, they invested in amenities and concessions they could charge more for. Before the pandemic, I was most frequently visiting a local Regal that hadn’t updated the screens, seating, sound or projection in at least a decade, but had ever more elaborate food, beverage and arcade gaming options.

Will covid be the final nail in the coffin? I don’t know. But covid didn’t start this downward spiral.

As for Warner, I appreciate that they are pursing a business plan during these times of uncertainty that allows those of us who feel compelled to stay home a chance to partake in the same cultural touchstones as those who feel freer to go out to theaters. I don’t want my local theaters to die but if they do it’s the result of decades of poor business choices and not because I decided to be extra cautious during the biggest public health emergency in a century.

Yes, well reasoned. This is what I generally call "MBA Thinking" and the corporate world is full of it. They decide what THEY want the world to be, then cram it down everyone's throat. Then there are the real real "prophets" like Steve Jobs, where they do something and everyone thinks they're insane, then eventually realize he was just ahead of them.

In the end, necessity is the mother of invention and where there's money to be made, solutions will be found and theaters will go on in some form.

 

[JohnRice]

The pandemic won't be over in 2021, unless most people are vaccinated which is very much in doubt.

Do you believe that will be due to skepticism or lack of availability?

 

[Jake Lipson]

many people don't really keep up with this type of timelines regarding movies and their availability.

Sure. I agree that most people won't pay attention to the 31-day limit. But I think people know when a movie they want to see comes out. If people know that WW84 is coming out on Christmas, how many people who want to watch it in home would actually wait until the end of January to watch it and then find that they can't it has disappeared?

Even when the box office was functioning normally, there's a reason that the studios made such a big push to get people in on the first couple of weekends. The majority of interest in new releases comes when they're new, not several weeks down the line. Of course you always have weird exceptions (The Greatest Showman is the biggest recent example) where they're really leggy. But the most tentpole releases start big and fall off. I don't think theatrical exclusivity starting on day #32 is a big deal.

 

[TravisR]

In the end, necessity is the mother of invention and where there's money to be made, solutions will be found and theaters will go on in some form.

A few will go on as reporterie theaters and play old movies or if there's a filmmaker with enough clout to demand a theatrical release on the remaining screens, that movie will play theatrically and also be available on streaming. However, the majority (or maybe all) of the ten or so mainstream theaters in my area that only play new movies will be gone in well under a decade.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Damn, Josh. I so much enjoy reading what you write.

And it always makes perfect sense! You are right! COVID did not start the downward spiral. I stopped going to movie theaters a long time ago because I no longer found it to be an enjoyable experience. For me, a plethora of movie ads without passing the savings on ticket prices killed it for me.

In the end, I’m not sure if this will make a major difference because I think the groups of “people who go to theaters” and “people who watch stuff at home” are getting more and more mutually exclusive. You’re a great example. You’re a huge movie fan and you enjoy all kinds of stuff, new and old, and you have no issue with paying for the stuff you want to see. You just choose to watch from the comfort of your home for reasons which are entirely valid and probably pretty common. Whether or not a movie comes to theaters first and then home viewing later, or whether they come to both at the same time, really isn’t gonna change your plans all that much - you weren’t going to theaters anyway.

I really think we’re heading towards a future where the relationship movie fans have to going to the theater will be the same as that of sports fans. Most football fans never actually go to see a football game at a stadium; they watch the games at home on TV. The people who do go to games pay a fortune for the privilege and those who watch at home pay a lot less. Everyone sees the same game, it’s just that going in person becomes something for the privileged few. That’s probably the future for theaters.

There’s a chance that a major studio or a group of studios working together could purchase one or more of the major chains. That may actually be best in the long run. I don’t think the theatrical experience will see much improvement or innovation until the people who control the content also have skin in the game for how that content is shown. Right now theaters make almost nothing from showing movies; they’re junk food businesses that just so happen to show movies. They don’t control what gets made or what they show, so they don’t have much incentive to improve that part of the experience. The movie itself is now the loss leader that helps them sell popcorn and soda. That whole equation needs to change.

But then you still have that basic underlying existential problem - it’s still not the only way to see a movie. And if we look at the entire modern 21st century economy, there has been a massive shift away from activities that require you to leave your house and do something on someone else’s schedule to staying at home and doing things on your own timetable. We’ve gone from an economy where people left their houses to go to stores to pick out selections based on what that local store would choose to carry, to one where you go online and order exactly the thing you want. Every brick and mortar business is trying to figure out how to deal with that. That it’s happening to movie theaters is just part of an enormous social and economic shift that’s unprecedented and I don’t think anyone truly knows how it’s all gonna shake out in the end.

 

[jayembee]

I have to agree with Josh. Back when Scorsese was going on about how the Marvel films were bad for cinema because they weren't leaving room for the non-tentpole dramas, I thought he was barking up the wrong tree. The films that Scorsese champions (and I agree with him that they should be championed) just weren't the kind of films that get released in the cattleplexes. They were back in the 80s, but not today.

What's killing movie exhibition is the streaming alternative. It's simply more convenient -- and cheaper! -- for people to see movies that way. The movies that people will want to still see in the cinema are the big flashy superhero/SF/fantasy/action films.

Given all this, I found it sadly ironic that Scorsese ended up doing The Irishman with Netflix. Sure, he got them to release it to theaters (as they often do with Oscar-bait films), but it didn't get the typical theatrical run one would expect from a new Scorsese film.