Friday, Warner Bros. Pictures decided to stream all new films at the end of this year and the whole year, canceling the theatrical window period. The news shocked the American entertainment industry like a blockbuster.
Before last week, Warner only announced that the superhero film Wonder Woman 1984 would be released in theaters and streaming on December 25. Friday’s news was that Warner’s 17 new films will all follow the same mode next year, including the live-action + animated film version of Tom and Jerry.
(March 5) and Sky Slam Dunk 2 (July 18), monster special effects blockbuster Godzilla vs. King Kong (May 21), science fiction blockbuster Dune (October 1) and Matrix 4 (December 22) will all be logged into their own streaming platform HB on the day of theaters. O Max. As soon as the news came out, the American film industry responded enthusiastically, and the theaters complained a lot.
After all, the traditional “offline to online” window in the United States is 90 days. If the cinema network is released simultaneously, the box office will lose a lot. According to the forecast of professional analysis company, Warner’s move will cause a $1.2 billion in box office loss, and the company hopes to make up for it from subscribers to the streaming platform.
Warner, Universal, Disney and other Hollywood films have always wanted to strive for more flexibility in the way of release, while theaters want to have franchises. This long-standing contradiction is more exposed in this “dramatic decision” of Warner and lays greater risks for the future of the film industry.
According to a Yahoo Finance report on the 5th, AMC, one of the largest theaters in North America, said that although it had agreed to synchronize the streaming of Wonder Woman 1984 in Christmas theaters, it did not know that Warner was going to do this way for all films next year. AMC CEO Adam Aaron issued a statement saying that “Obviously Warner is trying to sacrifice the film to subsidize streaming media”.
North American theaters were hoping to save the bankruptcy crisis when the epidemic improves next year, but Warner, the so-called “consumer-centered” radical plan suddenly announced by Warner, the studio, has further undermined the confidence of cinemas to restore the film industry. The Washington Post analyzed that Warner’s first launch of all films to stream will encourage the audience’s habit of “watching movies at home”.
If all Hollywood studios do this, it will “kill the cinemas” – the collapse of cinema stock prices after the announcement on Friday shows that there are concerns in the industry and investors.
