Warner Brothers made a massive decision to have all their movies play at the cinema and play them on HBO Max… At the same time. Ya, bye-bye cinema! I guess teens now are just going to have to talk during their dates! Or teens are just going to have to learn about Netflix early… Ya, you know what I’m talking about!

Warner Brothers have come out in hopes that making this big change it will help with their revenue. The problem though is that Warner Brothers kinda didn’t tell… everyone! Studios were surprised by the new change saying “This is ridiculous that they wouldn’t even make one phone call” and another studio saying “They didn’t even try to reach out. And they just assume that we would go along with this.” They could of written an email, or a letter? Does Warner Brother even write on letterheads any more? Our business, Drawlines Branding & Marketing, kinda depends on offices using stationary, maybe they were trying to save money?!
This impact will affect a lot of contracts, One example is Wonder Woman 1984 coming on December 2020 on Christmas. Gal Gadot is supposed to make $10 million dollars but that depends on the movie. Most contracts state that the movie has to make a certain amount of money before she can receive that full amount. Now that this movie will be coming out on both Cinema and HBO Max at the same time a lot of people will decide to stay home instead of paying for that full-screen experience. HBO Max is a monthly payment subscription whereas the cinema is “pay now, watch now. The money that the movie will not come as quickly as it used to compared to the old method of movie revenue. One way to try to resolve this is for Warner Brothers to buy out every contract and hope that their faith in their fans can help them make back and more the money that they originally estimated.

Warner Brothers have already been contacted by some of the studios so far with legal action due to the changes. I mean the movies that are coming out is amazing and a lot. You can see for yourself the movies that are coming out in 2021:

The Little Things – January 29, 2021

Starting things off in 2021 will be the release of John Lee Hancock‘s crime thriller The Little Things. The gritty drama centers on Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon (Denzel Washington) as he is sent to Los Angeles and quickly becomes involved in the investigation into a serial killer terrorizing the “City of Angeles.” Teaming up with Los Angeles Sheriff Department detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek), Deke begins to uncover details others missed along the way, even if it brings some things to light that should have remained forgotten. In addition to the two leads, The Little Things cast also includes Jared Leto, Sofia Vassilieva, and Natalie Morales.

Tom And Jerry – February 26, 2021

The long-awaited release of the live-action/animated hybrid Tom and Jerry movie will finally be coming to the big screen and small screen in 2021. When the longtime rivalry between the iconic cat and mouse brings the pair to the breaking point they go their separate ways. That lasts all of two years before Tom and Jerry cross paths once again, kickstarting another chapter in their decades-long battle. But in doing so, they fail to see that something much larger, and dangerous, awaits around the corner.

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(not a real trailer, video of the upcoming movie)

The Many Saints Of Newark – March 12, 2021

With no way of continuing the saga of Tony Soprano after the series finale of The Sopranos that people are still talking about more than 13 years later, David Chase will soon release the Alan Taylor-directed prequel titled The Many Saints of Newark. With a cast that features the likes of Allessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., and Michael Gandolfini playing the younger version of the character his late father, James, first made popular 21 years ago, the movie will touch on Newark, New Jersey in the 1960s and ’70s as tensions between the Italian-American and African-American communities come to a head. The upcoming HBO Films and New Line Cinema co-production also features Jon Bernthal, Corey Stall, and Ray Liotta.

(This is not the new Mortal Kombat 2021 trailer, this is the mini-series that went straight to digital before Hulu, HBO max and Disney+ started popping up)

Mortal Kombat – April 16, 2021

There have been plans to make a third Mortal Kombat movie for decades at this point, and it looks like we will finally get that in April 2021. Originally set to be released on January 15, 2021, the upcoming reboot of the film franchise based on the controversial ’90s arcade game will be directed by Simon McQuoid and have a cast featuring Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, and a whole roster of other actors and martial artists taking on the roles of classic characters like Jax, Sub-Zero, Kano, and Scorpion. Now I have to say I thought the 2011 mini-series was a massive upgrade compared to the original. So I put it up for now till the actual trailer is released. but you should look into this series.

(not a real trailer just the ending of Kong)

Godzilla Vs. Kong – May 21, 2021

The Warner Brothers monster slugfest that everyone has been waiting for, Godzilla vs. Kong, will finally come to theaters and HBO Max in May 2021. A sequel to both Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Adam Wingard‘s upcoming blockbuster will see the two iconic titans square-off after years of anticipation. But the showdown between Godzilla and King Kong isn’t the only fight with long-lasting implications as there is another human element that could threaten the very existence of life. Millie Bobby Brown and Alexander Skarsgård highlight the cast of human characters featured in the upcoming monster movie.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – June 4, 2021

There have been four installments in the Conjuring Universe since the 2016 release of The Conjuring 2, but that will change in June 2021 when Michael Chaves releases the third main installment The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Back again are Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as Lorraine and Ed Warren who will have them helping save the soul and life of a young boy using demonic possession as a defense in a murder trial. The case, the boy, and the possession are all like nothing the paranormal investigators have seen before.

In The Heights – June 18, 2021

The film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s Tony Award-winning broadway sensation In The Heights has been in the works for some time now and was originally supposed to be released this past summer, but there is some good news for those eagerly awaiting the musical drama starring Anthony Ramos as the optimistic bodega owner Usnavi de la Vega holding out for a better life. The Jon M. Chu-directed musical drama also features Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, and Melissa Barrera as Usnavi’s love interest, Vanessa.

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Space Jam: A New Legacy – July 16, 2021

A quarter of a century after Michael Jordan crossed the line between reality and Looney Tunes in 1996’s Space Jam, Lebron James will follow in his footsteps in the 2021 sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy. This time around, “King James” will turn to Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes characters to rescue his son Bronny (Ceyair J. Wright) by going through classic staples of the Warner Bros. library while also taking on the evil AI-G (Don Cheadle) in another wild and wacky basketball crossover event.

The Suicide Squad – August 6, 2021

One of the biggest movies coming to HBO Max and theaters next summer is the long-awaited release of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. Part sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad and part it’s own beast, the upcoming anti-hero action flick looks to be one of the most action-packed and unique takes on the genre to date. With returning cast members like Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, and Jai Courtney all coming back for more, the new squad also features Idris Elba, John Cena, Alice Braga, Nathan Fillion, and more names than anyone can type out. You will want to set your reminder for this one.

Dune – October 1, 2021

There are few movies that have shuffled around more than Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming adaptation of Frank Herbert‘s Dune, but it looks like the science-fiction epic starring Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides will finally come out in theaters and on HBO Max on October 1, 2021. When Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) takes control of a dangerous desert planet known as Dune, House Atreides goes off to the dangerous location to mine “the spice,” but is met with unfathomable obstacles, both man and beast. The all-star cast includes Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellen Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem to name a few.

(behind the scenes)

King Richard – November 19, 2021

Venus and Serena Williams will forever go down as two of the most dominant figures in the world of tennis as well as sports in general, and a lot of that has to do with the intense and disciplined training by their father, Richard Williams. The upcoming sports biopic, King Richard, features Will Smith as the native son of Shreveport, Louisiana, who transformed the face of tennis by pushing his two younger daughters to their limits. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, King Richard includes Saniyya Sidney as Venus Williams and Demi Singleton as Serena Williams.

The Matrix 4 – December 22, 2021

The prospect of a fourth Matrix movie has always seemed like a possibility but never a reality in the years since the conclusion of the Wachowski’s trilogy with 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions, yet here we are a little more than a year away from the return of Keanu Reeves‘ Neo in The Matrix 4. Written and directed by Lana Wachowski, the December 2021 science-fiction action thriller remains a mystery at this point in time despite principal photography having been completed in November 2020. And while we don’t know anything about the story or how certain characters will be brought back, we do know the cast is stacked with returning Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Lambert Wilson, with newcomers like Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jonathan Groff coming aboard as well.

Reminiscence – TBD

Lisa Joy’s (West World, Burn Notice) upcoming science fiction drama Reminiscence tells the story of Nicolas “Nick” Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a solitary figure living in a near-future Miami on the brink of ruin who has the power and resources to offer clients the chance to relive their old memories. The situation becomes complicated for Nick when he falls in love with a client by the name of Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) who later becomes implicated in violent crimes found in the memories of another client. The mind-bending, dark thriller also features the likes of Thandie Newton, Daniel Wu, and Cliff Curtis to name a few.

Judas And The Black Messiah – 2021

The assassination of Black Panther Illinois Chairman Fred Hampton was brought up briefly in The Trial of the Chicago 7, but one of the most shocking events (and what led to it) in the City of Chicago in the second half of the 20th Century will be examined thoroughly in the upcoming drama Judas and the Black Messiah. In the upcoming Shaka King-directed project, Daniel Kaluuya will play the late Fred Hampton leading up to his murder following an FBI investigation that involved Williams O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a criminal-turned-informant who went undercover in the Black Panther Party. Judas and the Black Messiah was originally supposed to come out on August 20, 2020, but it is now being released at some point in 2021.

(info on movie coming soon)

Those Who Wish Me Dead – 2021

Fans of gritty neo-westerns from Taylor Sheridan (Wind River, Hell or High Water, Sicario, Yellowstone) are in for some good news as the former Sons of Anarchy actor’s next feature, Those Who Wish Me Dead starring Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Tyler Perry, and Jon Bernthal, will be released on HBO Max and in theaters at some point in 2021. This female-driven thriller follows the witness to a murder as they are being chased by two assassins in the Montana wilderness that is being consumed by a wildfire.

Malignant – 2021

James Wan has become one of the biggest names in the horror genre in the past two decades, and the director of movies like Saw, Insidious, and the first two Conjuring movies will once again attempt to prove why he’s one of the best with the 2021 mystery film titled Malignant. Not much about the movie is known at this time aside from its cast which includes Annabelle Wallis, Jake Abel, and George Young, to name a few. Originally scheduled for an August 2020 release, Malignant is now slated to drop at some point in 2021.

Cry Macho – 2021

And then there is the Clint Eastwood neo-western drama Cry Macho that follows a onetime rodeo star and horse breeder (Eastwood) as he seeks out redemption on an epic horseback journey through Mexico and the American Southwester with the young son of his former boss. Based on N. Richard Nash’s 1975 novel of the same name, the movie has been one of the projects Eastwood has circled the most throughout his career, having first having shown an interest in adapting it in the late 1990s. There is currently no specific release date for Cry Macho, but it is slated for a 2021 release.

For this to work HBO Max would have gone from 9 million subscribers to 25 to 30 million within the year to compensate for the money that was used to make these movies. It doesn’t help that HBO has so many different channels to begin with, HBO, HBO Now, HBO Go, and HBO Max. Also, HBO Max isn’t on Roku which can help them bring in more subscribers so there’s a loss there.

What does AMC think? Don’t quote me on this but they say in the lines of “Warner Brothers intends to sacrifice a considerable portion of the profitability of its movie studio division, and that of its production partners and filmmakers, as for AMC we will do all in our power to ensure that Warner does not do so at our expense…” Just to point out AMC lost $900 million dollars so far, the main reason is the pandemic. Cineworld fires 45,000 people to stay afloat. So it’s understandable what they are saying.

This move was made thinking of themselves if you ask me. They are slowly cutting out the cinema lifeline so they can keep most of the profits themselves… if this works of course. Which by Netflix, standard, it can. If you got the subscriber numbers of course. If I have to take a guess is that as soon as the Warner Brothers quarterly revenue numbers are shown other movie businesses will soon follow ending the cinema business. What do you guys think? Will cinema service in the next 5 years? Was Warner Brothers assholes for doing what they did?