One of the most anticipated movies of this year, "Wonder Woman 1984," will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on December 25, 2020.
A press release from Warner Bros. confirmed the movie will be available for one month and, it will premiere in theaters in international markets on December 16. Once the one month is over, the film will play worldwide in theaters on December 25.
Wonder Woman's new release date
According to The Verge, watching "Wonder Woman 1984" on HBO Max will not cost extra beyond the monthly subscription for the streaming service, which is very different from Disney's "Mulan," wherein people were charged an extra $29.99 on top of the monthly subscription for Disney+.
HBO Max costs $14.99 a month, and the move comes as uncertainty grows over whether theaters will remain open due to the spike in COVID-19 cases across the United States.
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Even if they remain open, it is still not certain whether people will attend the screenings. With this new strategy, WarnerMedia can boost its HBO Max subscribers and still give the viewers around the world with no access to HBO Max the chance to watch it in theaters.
Jason Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia, wrote in a blog post that around 4 million fans in the United States enjoyed the first installment of the film, as seen in the ticket sales during the opening day back in 2017.
Due to the pandemic, the only way to boost the first day sales of the movie is if it is shown on Christmas day through theaters and HBO Max.
Delaying releases
Just recently, Warner Bros. moved Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" to October 1, 2021. This is a move that many industry insiders saw coming when Warner Bros. first pushed "Wonder Woman 1984" from its October 1 release date to just after the "Dune's" initial schedule release. This is to make sure the movies will not compete against each other at the box office.
The announcement also came after theater chains Cineworld and Regal stated that they would be closing all of their theaters for the rest of 2020.
Once MGM announced that the latest James Bond movie, "No Time To Die," was going to be moved to 2021, there were not many movie options left that would get people in theaters during the holiday season.
Disney also delayed the release of "Black Widow" to 2021. The new film from Disney and Pixar's "Soul" was also moved to Disney+ and is now available for streaming. Now, "Wonder Woman 1984" will compete with "Soul" for streaming views.
It is clear that the film industry is doing two things for 2020: embracing streaming services like Disney+, Peacock, and HBO Max and looking at 2020 as mostly a wash for the biggest films of the year.
Hollywood is still figuring out when to gamble, releasing its most anticipated and expensive films, some of which would likely generate at least $1 billion at the box office, according to Wired.
Since there is no guarantee of what will happen next year and no one knows when things will go back to normal, most movies will now be transferred to streaming platforms.
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