Warner Bros. Is "Rethinking" Its Theatrical Movie Release Model

There have been a lot of strange and interesting changes in the world recently due to the virus pandemic we’ve found ourselves in. There are so many things that I never thought I’d see ever happen. Movie theaters shutting down is just one little thing that has happened and that has caused certain studios to have to make decisions on the films that they planned on releasing. Some of these films have gone or will go to streaming services and some movies are being made available to rent digitally.

Now, Warner Bros. owner AT&T chief operating officer John Stankey is saying that they are “rethinking” its theatrical model. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stankey said his studio is "rethinking our theatrical model and looking for ways to accelerate efforts that are consistent with the rapid changes in consumer behavior from the pandemic.”

Warner Bros. recently released several films early digitally such as Birds of Prey, The Way Back, and they just announced that Scoob! would be released digitally as well instead of theatrically. The studio must have seen some success with the films they’ve released early so far if they are “rethinking” how they are going to move forward with its theatrical movie release model from here.

There are no details given on that this rethinking entails, but it could be anything from releasing some films direct to digital or shortening the amount of time between when a film is released in theaters to when it’s released digitally. I’m sure there are other options that they’ve discussed as well.

I know a lot of people prefer to watch movies at home, which is fine. I’m just not one of them. I’ve always enjoyed a preferred the theatrical movie-going experience. There are too many distractions at home for me to enjoy watching it there.

As of right now, Warner Bros. still plans on releasing Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in theaters in July and that’s going to be a good test to see what audiences end up doing. Will they be comfortable enough to start attending movies again? I will! I miss going to the movies! It’s been way too long and I’m having withdrawals!

Stankey’s statement raises lots of questions and it will be interesting to see what they end up doing in the future and how it will affect movie theater venues.