That television was going to kill him. The VHS. The DVD. The wire. Virtual reality. The cinema wanted to sign the death certificate a few times throughout history, but until now it is still there, very happy. And it is likely that now, despite the pandemic and the acceleration in the expansion of streaming, it will continue to live. But what does threaten to come their way is a radical change in the cinematic experience, and a shake-up to the notion that movies are seen in theaters. The cinema format is not going to die, but Hollywood film studios themselves want to “kill the cinema.”
In recent months the signs were clear: more and more companies are targeting their own streaming services: the last to announce it was Discovery Channel. In Argentina, DirecTV enabled its streaming platform, DirecTV Go, to be hired by those who have not necessarily hired its satellite television service. Disney announced that the priority is no longer only film premieres, but also its streaming platform Disney +, in which this month it will premiere two films in Uruguay, which in a normal year would have gone to theaters: Mulán Y Soul, the new from Pixar. In addition, it prepares the launch of another platform, Star, with adult content that is not on Disney +, which will arrive in 2021.
The new nail in the alleged movie coffin was put by another of Hollywood’s titans, Warner, on Thursday, December 3. The studio announced that, starting this month, and throughout 2021, its highest-grossing films will be released both in theaters and on its new platform, HBO Max. That list includes Wonder Woman 1984, Tom and Jerry, Space Jam 2, The Conjuring 3, the superhero movie Suicide Squad, adaptation of the science fiction novel Dune, a quarter of Matrix, and other movies.
HBO Max is only available, for now, in the United States, and that is where this measure applies. It works like this: the film is released and for a month, users can choose if they go to a movie theater and see it on a giant screen, or if they opt for their armchair, the bed, or the toilet seat. After that first month, the movie is still in theaters and goes off streaming for a few months, until eventually, it comes back.
On the one hand it is an undeniable pilot experience. If it works, it will continue beyond 2021, will expand to other countries, and will be replicated by other platforms. On the other, it is a maneuver to inflate HBO Max and make it compete with Netflix, Disney +, and other major competitors in the world of streaming. But there is no doubt that this decision by Warner highlights the path that the studios are taking: the priority is no longer cinema, but streaming. Without leaving it aside, now the focus is shared.
