Film Now Introducing HBO Max Classic

[Sithborg]

Please. I had to buy freakin AT&T cable to watch HBO Max on my Roku TV.

(Technically, they are the only people I can get cable from, so [shrug])

 

[Prison Mike]

I’m sticking with my Apple TV

 

[Comicbookguy339]

Well, with Firestick, Roku, PS4/5 and HDR/4K HBO max seems to have gotten all its ducks in a row (except for an international roll-out). If they don't manage to increase their subs significantly in the next year then I don't know what it'll take.

 

[Micromind]

Well, with Firestick, Roku, PS4/5 and HDR/4K HBO max seems to have gotten all its ducks in a row (except for an international roll-out). If they don't manage to increase their subs significantly in the next year then I don't know that it'll take.

They will need more content (and better marketing) that is tied to popular franchises (GoT, DCEU and maybe Harry Potter ?).

 

[SupermanFanboy]

#HBOMax is gonna own 2021 new app updates now available ! I am such a proud HBO Max subscriber from day 1 on May 27th my birthdate! They’re solidifying themselves as THE premier streaming service and it’s beautiful to watch grow!! In the year and time like we have been living in this was the best way to go and now more people will get to see many movies from great filmmakers and artists that average audiences normally wouldn’t rush out and go see in a theater because it’s not a MAJOR IP Franchise. Does everyone really believe that DUNE was gonna make $200 Million pre Covid??? It would have flopped just like Blade Runner because it never was a popular or known franchise. Now many people WILL watch DUNE and know the world because of HBO MAX! Jason Kilar is a brilliant man and I’m a proud fan of his. He is a fan himself of DC and major IP and that’s what sets him apart from just your ordinary CEO!! WW84 will PROVE this is the way we need to go for 2021 mark my words!! It’s gonna work out for both theaters and Warnermedia WIN-WIN!! Welcome back to a year of ENTERTAINMENT

 

[Erzengel]

They will need more content (and better marketing) that is tied to popular franchises (GoT, DCEU and maybe Harry Potter ?).

Just curious what would have been their plan for 2021 if it wasn't for the pandemic.

 

[DarkKnight88]

#HBOMax is gonna own 2021 new app updates now available ! I am such a proud HBO Max subscriber from day 1 on May 27th my birthdate! They’re solidifying themselves as THE premier streaming service and it’s beautiful to watch grow!! In the year and time like we have been living in this was the best way to go and now more people will get to see many movies from great filmmakers and artists that average audiences normally wouldn’t rush out and go see in a theater because it’s not a MAJOR IP Franchise. Does everyone really believe that DUNE was gonna make $200 Million pre Covid??? It would have flopped just like Blade Runner because it never was a popular or known franchise. Now many people WILL watch DUNE and know the world because of HBO MAX! Jason Kilar is a brilliant man and I’m a proud fan of his. He is a fan himself of DC and major IP and that’s what sets him apart from just your ordinary CEO!! WW84 will PROVE this is the way we need to go for 2021 mark my words!! It’s gonna work out for both theaters and Warnermedia WIN-WIN!! Welcome back to a year of ENTERTAINMENT View attachment 40620

Yet just another reason why I love Jason Kilar and why he is not your ordinary CEO! He’s a fan just like we’re and Engages with his consumers as a CEO personally. He handles the business to bring us the best possible content and I am happy to pay as a consumer **link removed because of uncensored profanity**

Corporate shill?

 

[KevTravels]

So excited for Soderbergh's new film "No Sudden Move" which debuts next year.

 

[SupermanFanboy]

Corporate shill?

No sir I’m no corporate shill. Just a fan. Hate to break it you but you do know streaming services and studios have their own fans as well. I’m a huge supporter of WarnerMedia and in this case HBO Max they have the best properties I care most for. Having said that I see so many of people like you making number of negative posts (surprised I didn’t just call you a rival shill? I don’t just do that) so I made my own explaining my positives and excitements I have for the future of the service and for ceo Jason who I really like. You an keep being negative I won’t question you but I’ll keep bringing the excitement

 

[Lily Adler]

So HBO Max is on Roku now, and I need to make a decision to keep using the Shield or not.

 

[metaphysician]

If they had actually worked out deals, it could've made a difference. Maybe rather than paying Patty and Gal 10 million (nothing against them), and then doing no such thing for everyone else was a really, really bad way of doing business. Again, not to mention all the down the line people who were screwed here.

And at the very least, if the filmmakers were being difficult, at bare minimum-- it would be a "WB tried, but negotiations fell apart" story, rather than a "WB just went ahead and made a ginormous decision on their entire slate without even consulting any of the people involved with those projects."

Yeah, people might've still been upset with the result, but the way they went about it deserves every bit of criticism it's gotten IMO.

You aren't wrong about WB having done wrong by acting on their own. . . however, I am rather cynical on the matter. I don't think its an "if" the filmmakers would be difficult, given the situation, the negotiations *absolutely* would have fallen apart at least to some extent, with loud and angry public voices. The reason is simple: as everyone has well established, the situation is largely unfixable. There is no fair way to avoid everybody taking a major loss. There are, however, *unfair* ways, like trying to cajole and coerce the studio into saving *your* movie for a future big theatrical release, while pushing other movies out via streaming. Everybody can be well aware that its impossible to save every movie for later ( and that doing so would screw everyone anyway ), and still want their movie to be the one that gets special treatment while everyone else gets pushed out the back of the bus.

 

[metaphysician]

One of the industry reporters said this when it was announced. He said that reps would most likely go to the trades before the announcement and throw WB/WM/HBO Max under the bus in public so it would prevent them from dropping the announcement.



Depends on when rights expire. I believe Hulu is next and their WB rights expire next year. Universal owns some WB rights like Harry Potter which isn't up until 2025. VRV owns the streaming rights to the majority of Cartoon Network/Boomerang shows but rumor is that VRV is getting shut down after the Crunchyroll buyout. Netflix's CW content stays on Netflix until 5 years after their final episode. So Arrow for example won't leave Netflix until 2024.

Now all this can change if WM decides to buy out all their contracts which will be a very hefty sum, like 2-3B+ worth.

Like I've said elsewhere before: this is why WB really should have started the setup process for their streaming service years ago. Its not like streaming just landed yesterday.

 

[BatLobster]

You aren't wrong about WB having done wrong by acting on their own. . . however, I am rather cynical on the matter. I don't think its an "if" the filmmakers would be difficult, given the situation, the negotiations *absolutely* would have fallen apart at least to some extent, with loud and angry public voices. The reason is simple: as everyone has well established, the situation is largely unfixable. There is no fair way to avoid everybody taking a major loss. There are, however, *unfair* ways, like trying to cajole and coerce the studio into saving *your* movie for a future big theatrical release, while pushing other movies out via streaming. Everybody can be well aware that its impossible to save every movie for later ( and that doing so would screw everyone anyway ), and still want their movie to be the one that gets special treatment while everyone else gets pushed out the back of the bus.

I actually think filmmakers would be more united on it, as they largely seem to be now. I don't think you can really do the "all films on HBO Max *except this this and this*", because at that point it's basically saying that these certain films are in a tier above the rest, which sort of devalues the rest as just "straight to streaming" films (which also demonstrates the power and symbolism of a theatrical release btw).

My point wasn't that the outcome would've been much different, but at least shows an ounce of good faith and respect for the filmmakers. What they did was remove them them from the equation entirely. "We already know how they'll react, so let's just cut to the chase and rip the band aid off." And who knows, it's possible the filmmakers may have had some useful suggestions about how to pull this off in a way that's still respectful of the theatrical window. Maybe they could've compromised and landed on a shorter theatrical exclusive window rather than the day and date strategy. It's impossible to say because of the unilateral action they took where they decided they didn't even want to entertain what the filmmakers might think or say about the best way to get their films out into the world. Then you throw in the financial component of it all, and the fact that they are using movies as a loss leader to prop up a whole different side of the business and it becomes really, really shady.

It's sort of like a declaration of war. Like...ok, you clearly thought there were no other options. But it doesn't mean there aren't going to be consequences for such a severe decision.

 

[kguillou]

The thing is WB’s mind was made up already, they were moving forward with this HBO Max plan which to be fair is completely within their right because they paid for these movies to be produced and own them. So the choices were either: they give the filmmakers the heads up, they likely get angry and their agencies likely leak this news prematurely to the press creating a very awkward situation for the studio or they just announce it the way they want to without telling the filmmakers and the filmmakers get angry but at least nothing leaks ahead of time.

The only other alternative would’ve been if WB was open to suggestions from the filmmakers to alter the plan entirely which it sounds like wasnt an option for them. They wanted to do this streaming plan end of story so I think in their eyes, this was the lesser of two evils because at least this way they control the narrative. Not saying I agree but this was likely their line of thinking.

 

[Zarex]

Legendary footed 75% of Godzilla vs. Kong's production cost and "a significant portion" of Dune, so while Warner Media is in charge of distribution it is not accurate to say AT&T owns the film.

There's a decent amount of product on that 2021 slate that's unlikely to add subscribers to MAX, so dumping the entire bunch onto the streamer created a completely unnecessary kerfuffle. AT&T should have picked out a handful of flicks they really wanted to get on Max this year - In addition to Wondy let's say Skwad II, Space Jam, Matrix 4, Godzilla vs Kong and Dune - and given them all the Wonder Woman treatment, guaranteeing multi million dollar payouts for the major players. Then if Legendary or the other production companies were inflexible in negotiations you move onto the next films on your list.

 

[brandeezy89]

Like I've said elsewhere before: this is why WB really should have started the setup process for their streaming service years ago. Its not like streaming just landed yesterday.

I don't think WB was never going to make their own streaming service outside of DC Universe. It's why they licensed a lot of their content to other companies, AT&T are the ones who wanted to start a streaming service. They weren't able to start working on one until the WM purchase was approved though which resulted in the late start.

 

[shauner111]

When you have Roku but you live in Canada. FML.

 

[TheVileOne]

Oops wrong thread.

 

[Spider-Fan]

So nice to be able to use the service on my TV without doing it on my phone and to actually have to dang thing work!

 

[Lily Adler]

So I'm using my Roku TV without the Shield for a week to see if I'm going to use it. I'm thinking of buying a dumb 4K TV and using the Shield with that...

 

[Detective Conan]

 

[Micromind]

Odd time to say all these things when one of the biggest movies she has directed is about to be released, she could have waited for sometime. Is she sabotaging her own movie ? lol.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Odd time to say all these things when one of the biggest movies she has directed is about to be released, she could have waited for sometime. Is she sabotaging her own movie ? lol.

Like I said in the Wonder Woman forum, Patty Jenkins is fairly blunt and the kind of person who will talk trash about this move and may not stay to do WW3 possibly. I think we are heading in that direction.

 

[Micromind]

She can go whereever she wants but right now she's supposed to promote ww84 movie, she's undermining her own film.

Why would average Joe care to see this movie if the director herself sounds like she's done with this franchise ?

 

[Spider-Fan]

She can go whereever she wants but right now she's supposed to promote ww84 movie, she's undermining her own film.

Why would average Joe care to see this movie if the director herself sounds like she's done with this franchise ?

But at the same time, she is being asked questions about the HBO Max thing and she is just being honest about it.