The consequences of the HBO Max / Warner Bros. decision continue to wreak havoc on the entertainment industry. Now that the first hybrid release has been released, let’s see how things go from here and whether Warner Bros. decides to fully delve into this decision. For now, we are starting to see the reaction of other studios. Disney seems more committed to the theatrical model, but they have changed some of their releases to streaming only and are giving Raya and the Last Dragon a hybrid version. Universal has agreements with AMC and Cinemark to shorten the theater window to seventeen days, and Paramount seems more interested in selling its intermediary services for streaming. As for Sony, they decided to simply delay almost everything until 2021. Sony Pictures President and CEO Tony Vinciquerra recently gave an interview to CNBC (via IndieWire) and said he saw a boom in talent interested in working with the studio because they are committed to the theatrical model.
“After the Warner Bros. announcement, it was a boom for us because it made it easier to date our films next year,” said Vinciquerra. “But the real benefit has been the number of calls received from talent, creators, actors and directors saying, ‘We want to do business with you because we know that you are a distributor and a theatrical producer.’ This worked very well for us. “
Sony delayed most of its big players, but sold a few things for streaming services, the biggest being Greyhound, which went to AppleTV for about $ 70 million. Despite this sale and what other studies are doing, Vinciquerra says Sony does not plan to make major changes to the theater model in a post-COVID world.
“We are not changing the course much,” said Vinciquerra. “We believe that the windows will become much more flexible and we are grateful for that. We think this is good for the industry and a good thing for our films. Some films will be better with a short window and some films will do better with a very small window. longer. “
Sony reaping the benefits of a lot of furious and talented filmmakers looks like it could be something that happens to other studios too, and it will be interesting to see who will take advantage of it. As for Warner Bros. and HBO Max, there are serious rumors that Legendary will take them to court for Dune and Godzilla vs. Kong. What if Warner wants to keep the latter, they may have to shell out up to $ 250 million, which is the reported offer that Netflix made for the film. Legendary funded 75% of Dune and Godzilla vs. Kong so that they could have a leg to stand up when it comes to blocking their showing on HBO Max. As always, we’ll be watching to see what happens with that decision.