WB Stream All the Way

I'm kind of struggling with how this will work. Warner Brothers has made 2021 interesting when it comes up next month. Whatever films they have planned for theaters, they are putting them on their HBO Max app the same day they come out. I understand where they are coming from. We may not see any normalcy until this summer. And that's pending how things go. It drew ire from several companies and a few Hollywood names.

If it's a way to draw people to the app, I'm struggling to see how much of an increase it would get. Some of these movies are not low budget. We're talking 100 million and up for Dune, Godzilla. I would think they would go the Universal route and charge 20 dollars for their new releases. Not prohibitive, but not cheap. But would people bite? There will be ones that want more than just old products or rewatching the last few years of films.

Some of the films could benefit greatly from the app. Something like The Suicide Squad and The Matrix 4 could drive a lot to HBO Max. I'm very curious about Tom and Jerry and Space Jam: A New Legacy. You can only do so much with Tom chasing Jerry. With just looking up Space Jam's budget, I have a feeling it's going to fail and not recoup the 183 million dollar production. Are critics going to like it? Because the original was panned, but made a decent profit back in the fall of 1996. The failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action despite a better reception made Warner Brothers drop a number of projects back in the mid 2000s. Are 90s kids going to like it from an adult perspective? I'm predicting an underperformance, theater wise and app wise. Maybe it gets a better reception in July, but that's hard to gauge.

Stuff like Dune and Godzilla, I'm iffy on wanting to give a prediction. They could surprise people.  Is there enough drive for Godzilla vs. Kong given how their films have done in recent memory? Will Dune impress anybody? It depends on the reception and even if you disregard reception, if enough people will watch it. Other films include Mortal Kombat, The Little Things, and Judas and the Black Messiah as just a couple of examples of also making it to the app and theaters.

Here in the States, it's still a struggle with this pandemic. Short term, Warner Brothers is hoping for 2022 to be a return to where people go back to the movie theaters. Maybe a little earlier, but still. As I said, I would think they would do like what Universal did. The numbers will dictate how the company thrives or struggles domestically. Internationally will be a different story.