Cinema Lounge Reviews

Last week, Warner Bros announced that for next year they will be releasing their entire 2021 slate exclusively too HBO’s streaming platform HBO Max.

In a time where we may not be getting a lot of good news nowadays, this is something we should all be excited for. Warner Bros announced that because of the ongoing pandemic, their entire release schedule for the duration of 2021 will become available on HBO Max simultaneously as the cinema release for US.

This follows a similar pattern to what many other studios have done this year such. One studio that has taken this approach with some of their releases this year is Disney. Disney was supposed to have some major theatrical releases this year including live action Mulan which has now been released as a premium movie on their streaming service at an additional fee on top of your subscription already. Other movies such as Trolls World Tour, Fantasy Island, Birds of Prey and Scoob! have all taken to a video on demand release instead of the cinema during the lockdown.

However like with most things, there is a catch. All Warner Bros productions set to release in 2021 will be released on HBO Max at the same time as the cinema release but after its been on the service for a month then it will be removed. But for the cinema enthusiasts the films will still be available in theatres after its been taken down.

Warner Bros executive Ms Sarnoff describes this as being a creative move which has the indentation to help those reach the new releases when they may not be able to access the cinema throughout 2021.

It’s going to be interesting to see if other studios follow this strategy for the upcoming year as it will be more than likely that many of us will still have restricted access to a theatre so it’s a fantastic idea for those who can’t reach the cinema. In the modern era, streaming services are the future of the movie industry as more and more companies take to them and having more blockbusters being released on demand. It could be still too early to tell whether many others will follow Warner Bros in having their entire slate being released on demand as well as in the cinema as it is a huge commitment which hasn’t been done before so it’s hard to tell if it will work out for the better or worse.