Nearly a week after WarnerMedia announced its plan to release its slate of 2021 movies simultaneously in theatres and on HBO Max, director Christopher Nolan publicly dismissed the company's plan, saying, "They don’t even understand what they’re losing."
Nolan's remarks came after both AMC Theatres and IMAX reported a stock plummet, following WarnerMedia's announcement. Nolan cited this recent development as well, adding, "Their decision makes no economic sense and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction," as reported by THR.
"Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service," Nolan said in a recent statement to THR.
WarnerMedia decided to release its films both theatrically and on a streaming service as a way to combat the economic recession during COVID-19. It anticipated that more people would stay at home, causing movies to perform poorly at the box office. This option was seen as a way to find a remedy to decreased viewership. "We're living in unprecedented times that call for creative solutions, including this new initiative for the Warner Bros. Pictures Group," said Ann Sarnoff, Chair and CEO, WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group.
Nolan further expressed dismay at this plan in an interview from ETOnline, stating, "In 2021, they've got some of the top filmmakers in the world, they've got some of the biggest stars in the world who worked for years in some cases on these projects very close to their hearts that are meant to be big-screen experiences. They're meant to be out there for the widest possible audiences... And now they're being used as a loss-leader for the streaming service -- for the fledgling streaming service -- without any consultation... Yeah, it's sort of not how you treat filmmakers and stars and people who, these guys have given a lot for these projects. They deserved to be consulted and spoken to about what was going to happen to their work."
Nolan ultimately deemed WarnerMedia's plan to pivot so quickly to a simultaneous release on streaming and in theatres as a plan that was too focused on short-term advantages, instead of planning for long-term rewards. "I think all of the studios know that the movie theater experience will bounce back and be a very important part of the ecosystem long-term," Nolan told ETOnline. "What you have right now in our business is a lot of the use of the pandemic as an excuse for the sort of grappling for short-term advantage."
While WarnerMedia's lineup will simultaneously release in theatres and on HBO Max, it is worth noting that the premiere films will only stay on the streaming platform for a slot of 30 days. After 30 days, all 2021 films will only be available to view domestically and internationally in theatres.
The full HBO Max 2021 movie lineup includes 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 and Matrix 4.