Warners to release entire 2021 slate to HBO Max
- Thread starter StCoop
- Start date
No moreso than people never going back to restaurants or bars. People will go back even though they've gotten used to eating and drinking in their own homes.
October 1
True. Anyone running a business knows you adapt or die.
For nearly 40 years, studios & "electronics" companies (whether they ended up owning movie studios or not) have been hard selling the home entertainment experience, and after the dubious qualities of video tapes, laserdiscs, projection TVs, etc., we are now (technologically speaking) where they have always wanted the audience / perception of entertainment to be. That. and the fact that you hear neverending complaints about the poor movie-going experience (obnoxious audience members, unsanitary theatre and restroom conditions, overpriced tickets and concession stand items, too many commercials, assholes not shutting off cell phones, etc.), the population is at the right, evolutionary moment where studio films can find a willing home audience, who prefers to watch movies in peace and a state of cleanliness.
I am certain millions will watch the Wonder Woman sequel at home and not feel they are missing a single thing.
I agree. Most places I've lived it has been more of an economic thing as well. Poor people who can't afford to go to the theatre or buy DVDs (often at twice the price as North America), buy the pirated copies.
There's a huge difference between cinemeas and restaurants. The advantage of a restaurant is that you don't have to cook your own food and a professional will make far tastier than you ever could. Going to a restaurant is easier. On the other hand, it's the exact same movie whether you watch it at home or in the theater. It's easier to stay home and watch a movie.No moreso than people never going back to restaurants or bars. People will go back even though they've gotten used to eating and drinking in their own homes.
Most U.S. Consumers Still Uncomfortable Going to a Theater in Next Six Months, Survey Finds
Most people are not that into the theater experience and will be just as happy to watch the new movies at home.
I agree. But all they have to do post-COVID is go back to the old way or releasing stuff. People (including me) are happy to watch stuff at home, but when it's the only option for three months plenty will go back to cinemas for some movies.
My entirely gut feeling with no evidence to support it take is, over the next 3-5 years, the cinema landscape will shakeout as follows:
IMAX, UltraAVX, Dolby Theatre, and other similar "hi-end" projection formats will continue to do well in population centres that can support them because they offer an "experience" that extremely few home cinemas can replicate. This is especially true for big cities where most people lack the space for a full home cinema (or lack accommodating neighbours). A 50" flatscreen and a soundbar are fine for everyday entertainment, but for "event movies", such cities will still provide audiences for the "premium cinema" experience. They will become ever more an "amusement park" type of outing.
In suburban landscapes, where detached housing makes home cinema much easier to set up (and is far less bothersome to neighbours), movie houses will have a hard time. A few "hi-end" cinemas at key shopping mall locations may keep going, but it will be more difficult for them.
In small towns, already quite limited in options, I suspect local cinemas will have to become multidisciplinary (if they aren't already). A mix of new releases, repertory events, and non-cinema (shows on stage--like the old days) will emerge. Or not. Many will close.
Smaller scale films (comedies, dramas, etc.) that are not IMAX style extravaganzas will make the festival circuits and then be VOD or streaming. On the one hand, that approach greatly expands the reach of such films in finding audiences. On the other hand, some of the more subtle cinematographic artistry that truly comes alive on a "very large screen" will be lost in the background of smaller TV sized screens. That's likely to lead to less visually interesting versions of smaller scale films.
(deposits medium-sized boulder of salt because his crystal ball is not infallible)
I live just outside Montreal, with many large format options, so I'll be going to see "event films" at the cinema when they re-open. But where 30-40 years ago, I could have seen "event films" in my home town in New Hampshire (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, James Bond, etc.), that won't likely be the case in 5 years.
I agree - even before people in my circle didn't go as much to the movies as they used to given the comfort of streaming services, prices at the theater and the accompanying hassle of getting actually ready to go out. Spectacle movies like Star Wars do give that added bonus of seeing it on a big screen with a professional sound system bit everything below this may find it harder to find a screen in the coming years.
If the new model will include a shortening of release time on streaming services, i.e. the movie will be exclusive for theaters in the crucial first 4 weekends or so where they make most of their money usually and it then runs parallel on streaming services the film studios need to hustle to make their streaming platform available worldwide or they will hamper their own success.
I expect this to happen over the next year or two and then the real fight will be on between Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon and others.
I would need months of low cases and to know the Vaccine is actually working.
I expect the UK to miss out and I wonder how much the Sky/HBO partnership plays into the fact we don't have this and never got HBO Go because of Sky Atlantic channel.
For the foreseeable future, I would guess that going to public events or spaces will require having the vaccine. Just getting vaccinated does not protect you completely--it requires everyone else around you to be vaccinated as well.
Legendary is possibly going to be taking legal action against WB over them releasing Dune and Godzilla vs Kong on HBOMax. I'm kind of surprised, I would have thought they would have at least gone to the other companies involved and get their OK before they did something like this.
Went and seen tenat and do miss the theatre and wish they'd release more so I can go now.
Will see WW84 in the theatre and can't wait!
Will see WW84 in the theatre and can't wait!
Dan Murrell spends over twenty minutes of his half-hour Charts show on the reactions from cinema chains, Legendary, and filmmakers, as well as his personal reaction, to the HBO Max announcement.
Gal Godot and Patty Jenkins got a cool $10,000,000 each to hype the announcement.* Nice.
https://www.cbr.com/gal-gadot-patty-jenkins-10-million-praise-hbo-max-deal/
*Basically what they would have expected to make from a normal cinema release in a normal year.
https://www.cbr.com/gal-gadot-patty-jenkins-10-million-praise-hbo-max-deal/
*Basically what they would have expected to make from a normal cinema release in a normal year.