As it stands, Wonder Woman 1984 is one of just three major titles set to hit theaters before the end of the year along with animated sequel The Croods: A New Age and Paul W.S. Anderson’s video game adaptation Monster Hunter. Patty Jenkins’ superhero blockbuster is no stranger to being shuffled around the release calendar, of course, with the recent move to Christmas Day being the sixth different date that the movie has been given since it was initially announced to be arriving in December 2019.
However, the theatrical industry is still clouded with uncertainty, and as the follow-up to the most critically acclaimed entry in the DCEU’s back catalogue that stood every chance of sailing past a billion dollars at the box office before the Coronavirus pandemic struck, Warner Bros. might be keen to protect their investment and push it back even further like they’ve already done with Dune, especially when Christopher Nolan’s Tenet didn’t pull in anything close to the numbers that were expected.
Now, a new report claims that the studio could make the bold decision to release Wonder Woman 1984 onto HBO Max just two weeks after it lands on the big screen, provided that it doesn’t get delayed again. The window between theatrical releases and VOD debuts has been getting shorter than ever this year as Hollywood struggles to come up with a solution to the downturn in business, and dropping one of their biggest projects onto streaming so soon after it debuts would be a bold and risky strategy for Warner Bros.
Obviously, having Wonder Woman 1984 on the HBO Max library would draw in a huge number of additional subscribers, but with a budget rumored to be hovering around the $200 million mark, the movie still needs to bring in some serious revenue in order to turn a profit.
