Christopher Nolan has spoken. Shots have been fired. Battle lines have been drawn.
Coming less than a week after HBO Max announced its 2021 Warner Brother’s Film distribution line-up, esteemed director Christopher Nolan has spoken and its ugly. In an interview that surfaced by The Hollywood Reporter, Nolan dubbed HBO Max the “worst streaming site,” coming just four days after Warner Media’s groundbreaking decision. On December 3rd, Warner Media and HBO Max, announced their controversial and polarizing decision stating that 17 Warner Brother’s movies, slated to be released in 2021, would be released on the streaming service, the same day that they are released in theaters.
The shocking announcement was met with mixed and heated reviews. And while most of the criticism and praises came from the film community, most actors and directors responsible for these movies have kept quiet. Until Now.
Nolan has been a long-time partner with Warner Media, dating back to the early 2000s and his movie collaborations since their first partnership have shattered records. Nolan is responsible for some of the largest blockbusters over the past ten years, including movies like “Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy and “Dunkirk.” Nolan’s honest and shocking feedback can be summarized below in his statements to The Hollywood Reporter:
“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.”
He’s not wrong in his assessment. HBO Max premiered in the Spring of 2020 to suspected lack-luster subscription numbers and for obvious reasons. Unlike other streamers, HBO Max launched without an “anchor” show to bring in subscribers. If you look at other streaming launches in the past year, you will find that all launched with a landmark show to bring in viewers. Examples include Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show” or Disney+’s “The Mandlorian.” HBO Max launched with a few shows, but nothing to hold viewers already limited attention span.
It also launched with no clear business plan for subscribers. There was already HBO and HBO Go and there was no clear identification that differentiated the 3 sites together. Each involved different services and features and each its own subscription plan. Perhaps even worse, HBO Max launched with no app. Cited as “irreconcilable differences,” HBO Max was not able to come to an agreement with Roku or Amazon to create an app that would show up on their streaming sticks. Which means, the best way to watch is through your laptop computer and if you are lucky, you can project on an HDMI cord. How can you convince your audience to subscribe to the highest monthly fee subscription ($14.99) without resolving at least one of the many problems?
When Warner Media announced their decision in correlation with HBO Max, Deadline reported that ultimately [their] decision came down to economical investments with fans and talent, though few seem to agree with the radical decision.
“We believe economically first and most importantly, it’s the right thing to do for fans, it’s the right thing to do for exhibition and the right thing to do for talent" - Jason Kilar
It’s no surprise that Nolan is…heated, to put mildly. Nolan had great plans for 2020, mostly including his highly anticipated time-heist spy thriller “Tenet,” which was due out this summer. Due to COVID, the film faced several delays and was ultimately released in September to dismal numbers. The film which was rumored to cost approximately $205 Million, only earned $387 Million world-wide. Yikes. To put into perspective, Nolan’s movies generally average around the $800 Million range, highest ranking would be “The Dark Knight Rises" which earned approximately $1.1 Billion worldwide. And after Warner’s announcement last week, many were waiting for Nolan’s thoughts on the acquisition.
While some are calling for “the end of movie theaters” following HBO Max’s announcement, others are applauding the media company for finding an alternative to theatrical releases, especially when the premiers aren’t guaranteed to make the same money.
It might not necessarily be the end of movie theaters, but the announcement is definitely going to change the medium for how we view films. HBO Max and Warner Media were the first to come forward and is unlikely that they will be the last. Nolan’s comments might send off a chain reaction within the film community as well.
"Even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction" - Nolan's criticism of HBO Max and Warner Decision.
Stay tuned for more developments – who’s side are you on?
And that’s the sitch.
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