Warner Bros. announced earlier today that its entire 2021 film slate will open via a “distribution model in which Warner Bros. will continue to exhibit the films theatrically worldwide, while adding an exclusive one month access period on the HBO Max streaming platform in the U.S. concurrent with the film’s domestic release.”
The strategy is identical to studio’s upcoming release of “Wonder Woman 1984,” which will have parallel launches in both theaters and on HBO Max for a month on December 25. Following the one-month HBO Max streaming run, all films will continue to play exclusively in theaters “with all customary distribution windows applying to the title.”
This is, of course, seismic news, shapeshifting, groundbreaking, whatever you want to call it. It is a confrimation of the inevitable death of the theatrical experience, at least, as we know it now. This is devastating news for exhibitors, of course, but an open invitation for streaming services to officially take over. This is the end, my friend, as Jim Morrison so eloquently put it in ’67.
What else is there to say? When this pandmeic is over, we will be able to again meet at a cinema, watch a movie on the big screen, share the experience with strangers all around us, but the industry won’t be the same. I will always choose theatres, whenever they open again, but a part of every cinephile died today with news of this WB/HHBO Max merger.
Warner Bros. has the following films included on its 2021 slate:
“The Little Things”
“Judas and the Black Messiah”
“Tom & Jerry”
“Godzilla vs. Kong”
“Mortal Kombat”
“Those Who Wish Me Dead”
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It”
“In The Heights”
“Space Jam: A New Legacy”
“The Suicide Squad”
“Reminiscence”
“Malignant”
“Dune”
“The Many Saints of Newark”
“King Richard”
“Cry Macho”
“Matrix 4”
Between this merger and the stacked lineup of films Netflix will likely be giving us again, 2021 is shaping up to be an incredible year on the small screen for cinema, if you’re even willing to call it that anymore.