Leading Hollywood Corporate Production House, Warner Bros made an unprecedented announcement. The production house will send its entire 2021 slate (17 films) — including ‘The Matrix 4,’ ‘The Suicide Squad’ and ‘Dune‘ to HBO Max for 31 days the same day they hit theaters.
The experiment will start with Wonder Woman 1984 which will hit the screens and HBO Max on December 25th as Christmas Special. This is the first experiment of having a simultaneous release in theaters and on OTT.
There is interesting commerce as well behind this experiment. A subscriber of HBO Max will have to shell out $180 per year if he has to watch all these films. Hollywood films in the United States are priced around $9. That means each household will pay for around 20 tickets. That is not bad commerce at all.
There may some jugaad of a subscribed resisting the temptation to watch all the films when they release and binge-watch all of them in the month of December buying HBO Max. The gap was closed by announcing that each of these films will stay on HBO Max only for 31 days. So, if all the movies need to be watched, a household has to stay subscribed for an entire year which will cost them $180. Probably film industries across the globe have to come up with such models to make films viable at least for the next year.
Theatrical Business will have a tough time with such fancy proposals because the entire household can watch Seventeen films at the price of 20 tickets. If we count at least two persons per household, it will work out to 34 tickets per household which means a benefit of 14 tickets per subscriber. We may see big cinema chains coming up with subscription models to counter this.
HBO Max is only accessible in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories. Exhibitors in the rest of the countries can breathe easy not before more such experiments come up.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
