Warner Brothers to release its entire slate of 2021 movies on HBO Max

[livid]

I figured this is a big enough story for the movie industry to have its own thread. Wow. 

 

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Would sure be nice to have a proper HBO MAX app on Roku about now.

[Maxx]

TIL that The Matrix 4 and a new Mortal Kombat film are in the works and coming out in 2021

[LL!]

Nice.

[livid]

15 minutes ago, damshow said:

Would sure be nice to have a proper HBO MAX app on Roku about now.

Have to imagine this news will create some urgency for both to finally hammer out a deal. 

[Josh]

I just wish they’d skip theaters entirely, at least for a while yet. It’s still an irresponsible thing to do at this stage.

[GhostMachine]

We're supposed to get HBO Max as part of our premium cable package (an extra `freebie' for having HBO), using our cable login with the app. Problem is, I use a Kindle, and they've not made a proper deal with Amazon yet. Their deal will only let people access it if they get HBO though Prime. 

 

[IDOL]

14 minutes ago, GhostMachine said:

We're supposed to get HBO Max as part of our premium cable package (an extra `freebie' for having HBO), using our cable login with the app. Problem is, I use a Kindle, and they've not made a proper deal with Amazon yet. Their deal will only let people access it if they get HBO though Prime. 

 

Google Play store can be added to Kindle relatively easy

[Benjamin]

Would be really nice to have HBO Max available globally now 😕 

[Warhawk8492]

Interesting to say the least

[Lint]

There are some drawbacks.  The movies will only be on HBO Max for a month, and they will be doing away with the free trial period

[Lint]

Christopher Nolan Rips HBO Max as "Worst Streaming Service," Denounces Warner Bros.' Plan

Quote

The instant response in Hollywood was outrage and a massive girding for battle. “Warners has made a grave mistake,” says one top talent agent. “Never have this many people been this upset with one entity.”

Right....Hollywood out of touch much?

[LL!]

Just shut up and keep making blockbusters, Chris. Nobody cares about your opinion.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

I think two things are true here. HBO Max is actually a good streaming service and WB fucked up the messaging in announcing everything would be on HBO Max in 2021.

[Gabriel]

I have been saying this for a while now, but I'd much rather stay home and watch something. I have a big screen television and my living room gets quite dark. I can have whatever I'd like for a snack, including a full-on meal, while I am watching... there aren't any fuckheads that I need to refrain from confronting for answering their phone during the movie, or deciding that they aren't as into it as I am and just going off having loud conversations throughout the movie. Oh, and the ability to pause the movie and go to the bathroom? So much better than wriggling about uncomfortably because you gotta piss but you'll miss something big if you leave.

Literally the only reason I even go to the cinema is to see something sooner than I would otherwise be able to. The theatre experience has been nothing but a pain in the ass for years.

This is the way we are headed. It doesn't have to necessarily kill the cinema, but they will need to adapt their business model to survive. Complaining that a concurrent digital release will destroy your business as a movie theatre is akin to a retail store complaining that online shopping is destroying their business. You need to adapt. Many retailers have done that and seen good success both online and brick-and-mortar. If movie theatres die out, it's because they didn't change with the times... not because Warner fucked them.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

I think there will always be room for the cinema, just maybe not to the degree it was before COVID. I still love going to a movie theatre. I love that experience. But it's expensive and you lose a lot of things Gabriel mentioned (your own snacks, meals, pausing, etc.).

[GA!]

I fell out of love with the cinema experience. It's not really a popular thing to say with my Film degree background, but cinemas spent too many years being completely lax about its standards and expected etiquette of its customers. I used to get anxious before screenings as people I didn't like the look of rolled in. I used to get angry with the constant light pollution from mobile phones. And why the flying fuck does everyone stay quiet during the trailers and action scenes but then rustle their fucking sweets and popcorn during the quiet scenes of the first act? I would happily pay more to stay at home.

 

[GoGo Yubari]

I'm the opposite, I honestly don't enjoy watching movies at home by myself much at all. I like theaters as a separate space, and I like not being able to pause because for me that way inevitably leads to long breaks where something I've seen sends me off on some tangent or other. A lot of the other things I think just don't bother me, though, and I (used to) go to enough movies per month that the AMC subscription was worth it. The only thing I really have an issue with in theaters is if people are loudly talking and even that's conditional, the second time I saw Get Out there were some teenagers a couple rows back commenting on/trying to predict everything and I loved how into the movie they were.

That being said, Christopher Nolan should shut up. His insistence that Tenet -- a movie nobody who saw it seems especially passionate about other than Tom Cruise -- should only be seen first in a traditional multiplex theater (IIRC they didn't even let it be shown at drive-ins if they were in states where regular theaters were closed) is I think part of how we got here.

[gunnar hendershow]

I love going to the theater. Really long movies without intermissions can be annoying in a theater and I can't enjoy them as fully (i.e. with an overpriced beer) as I would with the option to pause them at home. But overall I love the whole experience.

I really like, and this is subject to living in or near a bit city, independent theaters that do revival shows or show art house and foreign movies with higher frequency. And after COVID I hope most make it through so I can spend more time headed to them after work.

But the big cineplex experience is great too, I treat it as a separate thing than just watching a movie at home. It's hard to top for fun experiences in all honesty. It can certainly get pricey, but I've gone enough where I just grab a courtesy cup, fill it with water at the fountain, and my only expenses wind up as the ticket and parking. I definitely could see how this would be annoying when at home you can make up some food and press pause, but the pros of the movie theater experience (big screen, big sound, reclining chairs) outweigh these things.

[JasonM]

I think Cinemas won't go the way of the dodo anytime soon, even with WB and probably Disney going aggressive against Cinemas by going with concurrent releases or even potentially limited releases.

With every group having their own on demand service to sell, it was to be expected that they were going to be less likely to hand a part of the profits over the theatres instead of directly profiting themselves.

But there's a limit to profits to an on demand, and I think they're leaving a lot of money on the table if they're no longer going by Cinemas.

As others have said, a cinema is a different experience that only the super rich can really emulate with their own home system. I don't mind watching a film on my television, but going to the cinema is an outing that even my socially troubled self wants to seek out whenever I can find the drive (and COVID ain't fucking up the world).

Cinemas will suffer though, there are many that don't need a cinema and find it easier to just catch it on the couch. Taking away the exclusivity that Cinemas had by having concurrent releases will have many of those people simply ignore the cinema and taking the home video option from the get go. They'll lose out on 3-4 months of being able to pull in crowds because it's the only way to watch the new Avengers or w.e.

And I can see Disney and other major film publishers using this newfound advantage to further bend cinemas over the counter and force even more punitive terms when it comes to profit sharing and other absurd rules like having to use a cinemas biggest venues for x movie for x time even if it doesn't draw for shit.

Cinemas aren't going to die, I truly believe the crowd that likes the cinema is a uniquely distinct one that you can't just wipe out by putting every film on home video from day one-ish. But fuck me if this isn't going to lead to more scuzzy behaviour from the major film publishers.

This is a further power-grab, and it's not going to stop anytime soon. I think their next target might truly be trying to dismantle the SAG.