HBO Max has been a key streaming service for movie fans who have been reluctant to return to theaters amid the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and Warner Bros. deciding to release new movies on the platform simultaneously with its theatrical runs has been a huge boon to the service itself.
Now, according to reports, HBO Max-exclusive movies are now soon to be added to an already-lengthly list of original series exclusive to the platform. As CNBC notes, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar revealed during AT&T’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday that the platform will develop at least 10 HBO Max-exclusive titles in the coming years in an attempt to give all the people who have swarmed the platform in recent months more offerings even in a hypothetical post-pandemic world.
“The motion picture format absolutely matters and it matters in a number of ways,” Kilar said. “It matters in theaters …They also matter at home and, absolutely, in terms of the response that we’ve gotten not just from that title but from all of our day in day titles. We feel very good about the response that consumers have given it in the home.”
During the second quarter, HBO and HBO Max topped 47 million U.S. subscribers, up 2.8 million from the first quarter. Globally, subscriber numbers reached 67.5 million as of the end of June, up from 63.9 million last quarter.
Warners added the simultaneous release strategy to HBO Max amid the pandemic as theaters were closed and releases quite literally had nowhere to go. The resulting box office numbers have been interesting to say the least, with both award season impacted and box office numbers muted even as some people return to theaters. With Warners movies slated to return to theaters first again in 2022, those movies would not hit the streaming service until 45 days after the film is first distributed. But according to the report, movies with Oscar expectations headed to HBO Max exclusively may get a theatrical release in select locations.
[via CNBC]
