Wonder Woman 1984 will be released on HBO Max the same day it’s in theaters for no extra cost
One of 2020’s last big blockbusters, Wonder Woman 1984, will simultaneously be released in theaters and on HBO Max on December 25th.
Unlike Mulan, Wonder Woman 1984 won’t cost anything extra beyond the monthly subscription fee. HBO Max subscribers will have the opportunity to watch the film directly from home. The streaming service costs $14.99 a month. The move comes as uncertainty grows over whether theaters will remain open as cases surge across the United States. Even if they do remain open, however, it’s uncertain whether people will actually attend screenings. This way, WarnerMedia can boost its HBO Max subscribers and still give people around the world (where HBO Max is not available) the ability to watch it in theaters.
“To provide a comparable, a little over four million fans in the U.S. enjoyed the first Wonder Woman movie on its opening day in 2017,” Jason Kilar, WarnerMedia CEO, wrote in a blog post, acknowledging issues brought on by the pandemic. “Is it possible for that to happen again this Christmas with Wonder Woman 1984 between theaters and HBO Max?”
Recently, Warner Bros. moved Denis Villeneuve’s Dune to October 1st, 2021 — a move many industry insiders saw coming when Warner Bros. first pushed Wonder Woman 1984 from its October 1st release date (the most recent in a series of delays for the film from the studio) to just after Dune’s initial scheduled release. It didn’t make sense for Dune and Wonder Woman 1984 to compete with each other at the box office.
The announcement also comes just after theater chains Regal and Cineworld announced they would be shuttering all of their theaters essentially for the rest of 2020. Once MGM announced that No Time To Die, the latest James Bond movie, was going to move to 2021, there weren’t many movie options left that would get people into theaters during the holiday season. Disney delayed its anticipated Black Widow to 2021. Soul, the new film from Disney Pixar, also moved to Disney Plus. Now, Wonder Woman 1984 will compete with Disney and Pixar’s Soul — just not at the box office.
It’s apparent the film industry is doing two things this year: embracing direct-to-consumer options like streaming (Disney Plus, Peacock, HBO Max) and looking at 2020 as mostly a wash for the biggest films of the year. As the world struggles to figure out when things might return to normal, Hollywood is figuring out when to gamble releasing its most expensive films, some of which would likely generate $1 billion at the box office in the Before Times.
“We are committed to the theatrical experience and we believe giving exhibitors a movie of this nature is important right now,” Kilar wrote.
Warner Bros. learned a tough lesson with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, a movie that performed well internationally but saw little return in the US as theaters in key markets like Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco remain closed. The most difficult part for studio executives remains trying to figure out how people’s behavior might change, even when life starts to return to some normalcy. Will people still venture out to theaters en masse to watch a new blockbuster movie as soon as theaters reopen, if those theaters can survive until then? Nobody knows.
For now, if the movies slated to be released in 2021 keep their release dates, at least that’ll be a pretty packed year. But nothing is certain in life anymore, and as we’ve learned from this year, movie release dates are especially uncertain.
One of 2020’s last big blockbusters, Wonder Woman 1984, will simultaneously be released in theaters and on HBO Max on December 25th. Unlike Mulan, Wonder Woman 1984 won’t cost anything extra beyond the monthly subscription fee. HBO Max subscribers will have the opportunity to watch the film directly from home.…
Recent Posts
- Google adds biometric verification to Play Store to keep your in-store wallet safe
- Quordle today – hints and answers for Wednesday, April 17 (game #814)
- The Boring Phone is a nostalgic branding exercise by HMD and Heineken
- NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Wednesday, April 17 (game #45)
- The New Hot Handset Is a Cute and Transparent Dumb Phone You Can’t Buy
Archives
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011