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 Dec. 25, the studio has laid out a similar path for its 2021 slate amid uncertainty about when moviegoing 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 moviegoing 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.”
Despite word of coming vaccines, the company decided to put the entire 2021 slate on HBO Max after consulting with epidemiologists. Emmerich said the move was “to guarantee as many movies as we could for the year for the global theatrical marketplace.”
Sources say these discussions were kept close to the vest and not shared with many exhibitors. Warner Bros. will likely have to agree to far more generous terms with theater owners to avoid them boycotting their films. Insiders say the Wonder Woman 1984 split of ticket sales is far better for exhibitors than normal. Sources also say the studio did not inform partners such as Legendary, which has Dune and Godzilla vs. Kong, that their films were included in this plan.
Emmerich would not comment on possible terms the studio might give theaters to show these films. He also noted he was excited for other studios to share their own plans, saying, “having movies out there is good for cinemas.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter