Since launching six months ago, HBO Max has notched over 12 million subscribers, a solid performance for a startup streaming service but far from what WarnerMedia would have been hoping for. The conglomerate have publicly stated that they’re happy with the numbers so far, but you get the distinct impression that the decision to send the entire slate of Warner Bros.’ 2021 movies directly to the platform on the same day they hit theaters was partially designed to drive up the customer base.
It’ll definitely work, because even a household of two people will be much better off financially paying $14.99 a month for HBO Max than they would be shelling out for theater tickets on a regular basis, but some of the contracted talent have voiced their dismay with the potentially game-changing strategy. After all, the business has always relied on and been driven by box office takings as the primary source of revenue, and WB’s new model could end up with the studio shooting themselves in the foot.
Back before the Coronavirus pandemic changed the world as we knew it, Wonder Woman 1984 stood a great chance of hitting the fabled billion dollar mark, but now the DCEU sequel has no hope of even coming close to that, while the most recent reports have claimed that Warner Bros. could end up losing out on a ten-figure income by sending their biggest titles to HBO Max.
Godzilla vs. Kong, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, The Suicide Squad and The Matrix 4 were guaranteed to earn hundreds of millions of dollars apiece, but those numbers will drop massively now that people will be able to watch them from the comfort of their own homes instead, and it’ll be very interesting to see how this decision pays off in the long run.
