WarnerMedia rethinking theatrical releases

(FASTNEWS | COLOMBO) – Up until this week, the only yet to release major studio film that seemed to be testing the ‘Premium VOD’ waters was Universal’s “Trolls World Tour”. That changed yesterday when Warner Bros. Pictures pushed its “Scooby Doo” animated movie “Scoob!” direct-to-premium streaming on May 15th – the same day it was supposed to hit cinemas.

Now, Deadline reports that WarnerMedia is ‘rethinking the theatrical model’ in light of COVID-19 – the sentiment coming from AT&T COO John Stankey himself during the media giant’s first-quarter earnings call.

Exhibitors can’t afford to upset Warners at this point. Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” in July and Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman 1984” in August are being seen as the first real blockbusters set to return to cinemas in coming months, with cinema chain CEOs talking up those films in recent days.

Stankey however was far less optimistic, saying: “Don’t expect that’s going to be a snap-back [recovery]. I think that’s going to be something that we’re going to have to watch the formation of consumer confidence, not just about going to movies, just in general about being back out in public.”

The comments follow on from WarnerMedia announcing the May 27th launch date for HBO Max which is reportedly a top priority for WarnerMedia’s owners AT&T. Its expected (though not confirmed) the SVOD service will become home to feature films in an earlier window than planned, following the pattern that began with Disney+ getting “Frozen II” and “Onward” so early.

Former Hulu founding CEO Jason Kilar is the new CEO of WarnerMedia and earlier this year promised to continue ‘experiments’ with release windows.