Warner announced on Friday that from next year it will distribute its films on its HBO Max streaming service at the same time as in theaters, effectively delivering a death blow to the theatrical window. Is this the end of the movie theater as we know it?
Already reeling from the impact of a year of lockdowns, movie houses around the world look set to close in their droves in the coming months, perhaps never to reopen, after Warner announced on Friday that from next year it will distribute its films on its HBO Max streaming service at the same time as in theaters, effectively delivering a death blow to the theatrical window. Previously, another major studio, Universal, announced an agreement with a chain of cinemas, Cinemark, to shorten that window from the usual three months to just 17 days. Some say that the decision does not mean the end of movie theaters, but just a way for studios to try to improve next year’s results. But many in the media are already talking about the end of the movie theater experience: after all, watching a movie in a theater implies remaining in a closed environment for a couple of hours, something that few people want to do at the moment, even when wearing a mask.
