Movie theaters may slash ticket prices to $3 for Warner Bros. films, according to a report, after the studio said it would debut movies on HBO Max alongside cinemas

• Some US cinemas may slash the prices of tickets for Warner Bros. films, and ask to keep more of the revenue, insiders told $4.
• This comes after Warner announced $4, sparking $4.
• Some of the US's largest chains, including AMC and Cinemark, have already suggested that they may not show all Warner titles.
• AMC has warned it could run out of money by the end of January – partly because of Warner's decision.

US cinema chains may reportedly drop the prices of tickets for Warner Bros. films, after the studio said its 2021 releases would be available on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters.

Some movie theaters are considering slashing film tickets to as low as between $3 and $5 for Warner titles, insiders told $4 - and the cinemas want to keep a hefty chunk of the ticket sales, too, at around 75% to 80% of revenue, the sources said. This is higher than normal.

$4, it announced in early December. The movies will be available on HBO Max for one month, and will continue to play in theaters after that.

Some of the US's largest movie theater chains, including AMC and Cinemark, have already said that $4 to decide whether to screen them.

Read more: $4

While Warner's plan is, for now, only for 2021, $4, who usually get to show a movie for 75 days before it can debut on streaming services.

Even before Warner made its announcement, movie theaters had been devastated by the pandemic.

Cinemas have been hit by both the lack of new releases because of coronavirus-related production delays, and waves of temporary closures and capacity limits.

The HBO Max deal is part of the reason why AMC could run out of money by the end of January, the cinema chain wrote in an $4 earlier this month.

Recent spikes in COVID-19 cases, alongside delays to major releases or decisions to launch straight to streaming, "have had, and are expected to continue to have in the future, a material adverse impact on theatre attendance levels and our business," $4.

This has been exacerbated by Warner's announcement, it said, though AMC noted it doesn't know the full impact this will have yet. Other studios may adopt a similar strategy to Warner, it added.

Read more: $4

$4 because of the advent of straight-to-streaming.

Warner itself could be financially hit, too. The studio could lose around $1.2 billion through lost revenue in 2021 because of fewer people seeing its movies in theaters, $4.

Business Insider has contacted AMC, Cinemark, and Warner Bros. for comment.