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Warner Bros. Will Return To Theatrical Releases In 2022, Ending Its HBO Max Experiment (theverge.com) 50

According to Deadline, Warner Bros. will return to releasing its theatrical films exclusively in theaters next year, ending the studio's 2021 experiment of releasing major films simultaneously on its HBO Max streaming service and in theaters for the first 30 days they're released. The Verge reports: The news comes as part of an announcement from Warner Bros. of a new deal with Regal cinemas owner Cineworld, the second largest theater chain in the world. After over six months of shutdowns, Regal's theaters will reopen in April, and they'll begin showing Warner Bros. films like Kong vs. Godzilla and Mortal Kombat alongside their HBO Max debuts. When Warner Bros. films come back to theaters in 2022, Regal theaters will once again have full exclusivity (with no HBO Max or paid streaming rental competition). But that exclusivity window will be for a much shorter amount of time: Regal will only have a 45-day theatrical exclusivity window, half of the 90-day standard that existed in years past.
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Warner Bros. Will Return To Theatrical Releases In 2022, Ending Its HBO Max Experiment

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  • will diseny do the same? Will the cinemas not show diseny if they don't do the same?

    And if diseny does keep stuff on there service will Warner Bros back track?

  • Seriously, on this new-life-style of this pandemic (that will NOT disappear, as we humans have NEVER EVER eradicated any coronavirus before) they have chosen a closed-space-only?

    Good luck (sarcasm intended).

    • by evanh ( 627108 )

      Eradication has never been attempted. The tools weren't off-the-shelf solutions and the regular flu wasn't severe enough.

      At any rate, regular vaccinations will allow the old ways back with little risk. The regular flu is virtually non-existence with some basic precautions, including regular flu vaccinations and use of hand sanitisers.

      • Regular flu isn't a coronavirus. Influenza viruses and coronaviruses are relatives in about the same way that we relatives of comb jellies.

        • Both are mRNA viruses, so I'd say a little closer.

          However Influensa are positive sense mRNA viruses, and coronaviruses are negative sense mRNA viruses. Perhaps more like lizards and humans. Theres some basic concepts in common, but the divergence point evolutionarily speaking is a long long time ago.

          • Both are mRNA viruses, so I'd say a little closer

            The Orthornavirae form an entire kingdom, and that's the common point between influenza and coronaviruses. I picked the ctenophora as my example for an animal since it's about as far away as you can get from humans without moving to another kingdom. I could have picked sea sponges but there has been some debate on whether sponges diverged after ctenophores then lost features or diverged before, and anyway I like comb jellies, they're really cool and are basic

        • by evanh ( 627108 )

          Okay, the regular cold then. My point about not having tried is even more pertinent for them since they're almost ignored in society.

    • Maybe the theaters forced there hand or they cut them an better deal say maybe we will not take 99% of the gate.

      • Itâ(TM)s roughly 50% in the US although that varies depending on the studio and the time in the release schedule. Blockbuster releases tend to skew towards the studio. Smaller releases (e.g. indie) skew to the cinema.

    • "We may never discover an effective vaccine."
      "This is going to cause a global depression"
      "The recession may last for years"
      "It's going to take years to develop, test, and manufacture a vaccine."
      "We'll never be able to go back to a normal, pre-pandemic lifestyle."

      The pessimists have been wrong at every turn, perhaps with the exception of the total number of fatalities and serious illnesses. Let's see how the virus fares against a mostly inoculated population before we declare the extinction of our old, norm

      • by ranton ( 36917 )

        The pessimists have been wrong at every turn, perhaps with the exception of the total number of fatalities and serious illnesses.

        Pessimists and optimists are usually wrong at every turn. You could point to any number of optimistic predictions about Covid-19 being no big deal as being just as wrong.

        Most of the realist predictions have held true. Millions have died worldwide, with half a million in the US alone. Millions more would have died without significant measures put in place around the world. Nations with more aggressive measures to lockdown during outbreaks did much better than their neighboring countries, and their own infect

        • Blind optimism is just as foolish as unfounded pessimism. I prefer a "let's listen to the experts and see what happens" approach. I also think it's wise to look at historical precedence. This is not the first pandemic humanity has been through.

          Also, frankly, I've always viewed people going to work with cold or flu symptoms still going to work as highly unacceptable. It's an incredibly selfish act, and puts either your own importance or your own finances above the health of your co-workers. And doubly s

    • as we humans have NEVER EVER eradicated any coronavirus before

      Who said anything about eradicating? Coronavirus isn't Polio. We just need to get it to acceptable levels. How many people do you know of in the past 6 years who have caught SARS-CoV-1? Are you afraid daily from H1N1? I mean that killed 50 million people in 1918 and we didn't eradicate that either.

      We do not need to eradicate the virus for things to return to normal. That was *never* the endgame.

    • humans have NEVER EVER eradicated any coronavirus before/quote

      Have you heard of SARS-CoV-1 lately?

    • *assuming your not one of 1600 americans dying each day, or 11,000 world wide dying each day from it, sure i guess?

      Of course if theres one thing thats guaranteed to shoot those numbers right back to the horror days of a few months ago, it'd be everyone acting like an f***ing idiot and resuming life as normal before the vaccines finished rolling out.

      Oh , and your wrong about having never eradicated any Coronaviruses. We erradicated the original SARS

    • Seriously, on this new-life-style of this pandemic (that will NOT disappear, as we humans have NEVER EVER eradicated any coronavirus before)...

      We have never HAD to eradicate a coronavirus before. A year from now, it will only still be around to clean the rest of the antivaxers out of the gene pool. Then we will be able to deal with future diseases a lot more swiftly.

  • ...uploaded their content to platforms people actually use. Even Last Week Tonight puts the good parts up on YouTube.
  • Has HBO even carried more than one movie on the service yet that was simultaneously in theaters?

    I was mulling over maybe later in the year getting HBO to try watching some release...

    Since they never even gave a chance to see the results of the "experiment" it's pretty obvious it was never an experiment at all, but merely leverage to use against theaters.

    • by jonwil ( 467024 )

      As far as I know the only WB film that this has happened to so far is Wonder Woman and based on the reception of that film I don't know that it has been a particularly good test case...

      • As far as I know the only WB film that this has happened to so far is Wonder Woman

        Oh yeah, already forgot about that even though I watched it on HBO!

        Even though the movie itself was pretty bad (I'm usually able to easily overlook soem holes to enjoy a story, but just too many there to ignore) I still felt like at least a lot of people watched it there, so from that standpoint it seemed like a success.

    • by ranton ( 36917 )

      Has HBO even carried more than one movie on the service yet that was simultaneously in theaters?

      Tom & Jerry is likely the only other movie you might know about which was released on HBO Max in 2021, although The Little Things and Judas and the Black Messiah. Q1 has always been a weak time for movies, so it isn't surprising there haven't been many notable Warner Brothers movies early in 2021. But the next month with bring Godzilla vs Kong and Mortal Kombat. Later in the year we will see Space Jam, Dune, and Matrix 4, among many others.

      Since they never even gave a chance to see the results of the "experiment" it's pretty obvious it was never an experiment at all

      I have had trouble searching just now for WB announcements that

  • by Cmdln Daco ( 1183119 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @10:19PM (#61191440)

    They have always been kind of gross, in a lot of ways. Only tolerable because it's been the only way to see first-release content.

    Theaters were already in trouble long before the pandemic. Doubly so now, because people are much more aware of 'sharing other people's air' than they ever have been in the past.

    Gross. Who really wants to sit on a dirty seat with popcorn and soda stickiness all over the floor?

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by lenoc60877 ( 7381256 )
      Slashdot is full of anti-social idiots. Before Covid happened, theaters had their highest revenue year ever. Normal people like to go out of their houses.
      • by ranton ( 36917 )

        Slashdot is full of anti-social idiots. Before Covid happened, theaters had their highest revenue year ever. Normal people like to go out of their houses.

        Box office tickets sold have been dropping since 2002. 2019 saw 22% less tickets sold than 2002. It was a 32% drop on a per capita basis. Revenues are increasing because of rising costs to see movies in theaters in order to compensate for dropping attendance. Things are different in many other countries, but there is a reason theaters have been trying to reinvent themselves in the US for years.

        While the trend has been gradual in the US, if streaming of movies takes off like music streaming did in the early

    • That's a sad but still very localised view of cinema.

      Gross. Who really wants to sit on a dirty seat with popcorn and soda stickiness all over the floor?

      Absolutely no one, which is why our local cinemas are cleaned after every viewing. I can count on one hand the number time of times I've had a sticky floor or a dirty anything in any of the cinemas in my city in the last 5 years. That may not sound impressive, but I (pre COVID) would see 1-2 movies a week.

      Cinemas were a great experience for me, where I live. There was no mess, no dirt, people don't talk or use their phones. The seats are large and comfort

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Cinema based on what I read here on Slashdot is dead in the USA, but in the rest of the world it is massively popular and largely expanding. It's sad you can't find a cinema that gives a shit about your viewing experience.

        Cinema will be around as well.

        Not everyone can have a 100" TV at home with a booming surround sound system. In the rest of the world, where houses are typically smaller, big screens and big sound aren't near as ubiquitous because it's hard to fit it in. A typical house in the US is practic

      • Cinema based on what I read here on Slashdot is dead in the USA, but in the rest of the world it is massively popular and largely expanding. It's sad you can't find a cinema that gives a shit about your viewing experience.

        That's your problem. On non-tech issues, "conventional wisdom" on Slashdot doesn't know what the fuck it's talking about. 2019 was a banner year for theaters and film industry. People who aren't techies or Slashdotters (that would be the majority of the population) like going to theaters and will continue to do so.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        No matter how clean and comfortable the cinema is I will never be able to pause the movie or adjust the volume level.

        It all depends on what your home setup is like and how much you want features like a pause button I guess.

        • No matter how clean and comfortable the cinema is I will never be able to pause the movie or adjust the volume level.

          Two "problems" that I really don't think even remotely compare to the joys of watching a 17.4m wide screen feed by dual 8K Christie laser projectors. You're absolutely right, it depends on how much you want features.

          I'll admit I'm a cinephile. Even last year I went to the cinemas quite often. Which was great since it gave me the opportunity to see some classics like the original Matrix film in a Dolby Cinema (though at that point you start to realise that colouration needs to be done to the standard of the

      • That's just true of a lot of experiences in America. Our investment style has forced companies to focus only on the bottom line - to the detriments of quality, service, innovation, ingenuity, risk taking, and have instead replaced them with: DID YOU FUCKING MAKE MORE MONEY THIS QUARTER THAN THE LAST 4 QUARTERS WHY THE FUCK NOT.
        • You'd think at some point companies whose businesses are tanking would realise why. You know how to cut all expenses? Get rid of all customers, all staff, and all products. Then you have *no* expenses. :-)

          • Except not really. In America the idea is to get bought out by a large conglomerate or massive industry leader. We're a corpocracy that's being formed with multinational mega-corps ensuring through monopolies, campaign contributions, and coercion or backroom deals with each other to ensure us Americans are pumped for every penny we have while minimizing the cost as much as possible and utilizing inflated marketing budgets to increase perceived value.
  • Sorry WB, I got a taste of movies at home and I will continue doing that. Good luck with your theaters!
  • A cinema release stills offers a unique period of timed exclusive sales and the only effective method of mostly preventing pirating. This allows both double dipping in revenue for those who see it at the cinema and those who will subscribe to streaming services and incentivise subscribers to join/stay in on streaming services if they liked what they see, both almost without downside.

    For everything that hits online Streaming services it hits the torrent sites same day at full quality. I mentioned this over a

    • by hjf ( 703092 )

      For everything that hits online Streaming services it hits the torrent sites same day at full quality. I mentioned this over and over again that greed will drive these companies back to the theater and not the other way around.

      So wait: not wanting the movie you invested millions in, to be pirated left and right the day it's out, is GREED now?
      What the fuck is wrong with you?

      • Greed: a selfish desire for something, especially wealth.

        So yeah, actually not wanting your movie to be pirated left and right the day is out does actually fit the definition of greed quite well.

        What the fuck is wrong with you?

        Nothing. Why do you think there's something wrong with me? Greed related to the desire for wealth, and that's perfectly in line with operating a for profit enterprise that would weigh up the cost of a Cinema exclusive period vs additional sales and piracy. Help me out here, English is my second language. I don't und

  • Releasing movies on "HBO whatever" offered no additional income stream. If you're a subscriber, they already have your money. Putting new releases on the service doesn't allow them to fuck the chicken for additional revenue.

    They certainly don't want people getting use to having *value* for their money. That would be a goddamn tragedy.

  • Good news for 12-year-olds, and those who never matured past that point.

  • It makes little difference to me whether I can watch the movie online the day it hits the theaters or if I have to wait 3 - 6 months to stream it. If it's a movie I think I'll really like, I'll buy it on disk so I can rip it and keep it on my computer to watch anytime I want.

    But one thing I'm not going to do is go to a theater to see it.

  • could the reversal be because the actors were losing out of box office receipt shares so they were hesitant in taking new roles in WB movie projects?

  • WB refused to license any streaming rights to Canada streaming facilities until 3 months after the theatrical run.

    Of course, the thing is that there are no theaters open right now, and tbh, at the rate things are going here, I'm not entirely sure that they are going to be open by the end of this year either.

    And seeing ads for movies that I might have wanted to watch but are "only in theaters" really feels like spite.

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