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 The Hollywood Reporter - 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.
Warner Bros. will release all its 2021 movies on the HBO Max streaming platform the same day they're released in theaters, 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 they will review Warner titles on a case-by-case basis to decide whether to screen them.
Read more: HBO Max's chief breaks down the seismic decision to stream all 2021 Warner Bros. movies as they hit theaters and responds to speculation about 2022 and beyond
While Warner's plan is, for now, only for 2021, it could have major and permanent ramifications for both Hollywood and movie theaters, 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 SEC filing 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," AMC wrote in the filing.
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: Hollywood is raging over Warner Bros.' HBO Max plan. But one producer whose movie was impacted gave us the counter argument.
"Wonder Woman 1984" director Patty Jenkins warned that "we could lose movie theater-going forever" 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, Moffett Nathanson analysts estimated earlier this month.
Business Insider has contacted AMC, Cinemark, and Warner Bros. for comment.
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