Christopher Nolan has explained why he felt the need to come out against Warner Bros. and their plan to stream all their movies right away on HBO Max in 2021.
Warner Bros. decision to bring all their movies in 2021 to HBO Max right away made a lot of people unhappy in the industry. Christopher Nolan was one of the big names to speak out against the move, along with the likes of James Gunn and Zack Snyder who called the move a “knee-jerk reaction”.
Nolan is a big advocate of the theatrical experience and has explained to The Washington Post that he was frustrated by WB not working with filmmakers or speaking to theatre partners:
“The studio needed to collaborate with the filmmakers on what was going to happen. They didn’t speak to the filmmakers, they didn’t speak to the theater chains. They didn’t speak to the production partners on the films. That was the reason I was speaking up. As far as the specific strategy of what you would be doing over the entirety of next year, I don’t know why anyone would be making predictions through to December of 2021 on what they should or shouldn’t be doing with the business. That seems a long way out in a fast changing, dynamic situation.”
Many industry insiders are also of the mind that this won’t just be a decision for 2021 but that this will in fact be extended by WB beyond next year. Of course, this is bad news for theatres that are already struggling to stay afloat.
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Nolan is a long-time partner of WB, having released most of his movies with the studio so he obviously felt very strongly to criticise them so publicly.
