UPDATE AMC THEATERS stock dropped 16% at close of bell today after WB’s announcement.
Warner Bros. has dealt to a potential death blow to movie theaters today. They’ve announced that all their 2021 releases will go not only to theaters but to HBO Max at the same time. HBO Max is the Warners streaming equivalent of Disney Plus or Netflix. This means that audiences will have the option of staying home, not paying for babysitters, sodas, candy, etc. And they will avoid potential exposure to COVID.
Will some want to go to theaters? Maybe. But by and large, this could kill the theater business.
At 2:14pm, AMC Theaters stock had dropped 12% in two hours.
The movies on this list for 2021 include:
Denzel Washington’s “The Little Things,” upcoming Oscar-buzzed “Judas and the Black Messiah,” plus Tom & Jerry, Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Lin Manuel Miranda’s “In The Heights,” Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad, Reminiscence, Malignant, “Dune,” David Chase’s “The Many Saints of Newark,” King Richard, Cry Macho and Matrix 4.
The studio had already announced the simultaneous release of “Wonder Woman 1984” in theaters and on HBO Max.
The studio says: “The hybrid model was created as a strategic response to the impact of the ongoing global pandemic.”
