After the huge announcement by Warner Bros. to put all their 2021 films on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters, notorious theater-enthusiast Christopher Nolan was quick to blast the game-changing decision. Now, the filmmaker is expanding on his comments and doubling down on his concerns regarding the move to streaming.
In an interview with NPR, Nolan doubled down on his disappointment over Warner Bros.’ decision and how it will affect the industry going forward. “The economics of it are unsound unless you’re purely looking at movements in share price, number of eyeballs on the new streaming service,” Nolan said, adding that the traditional release windows are “very important to the economics of the business and to the people who work in the business.”
“And I’m not talking about me,” Nolan continued. “I’m talking about the grips, the electricians who depend on IA [the International Alliance union] and IA residuals for pension and health care. I’m talking about SAG [the Screen Actors Guild]. I’m talking about actors.” Indeed, it has been talked and written about that the big reckoning to this decision will come in the form of guilds taking action to stop what they may see as a cataclysmic change to the structure of the residuals currently in place. Shortly after Warner Bros. made the announcement, representatives of major Hollywood players, as well as guilds, started slamming the “unacceptable” move by WarnerMedia and HBO Max.
It’s hard not to at least somewhat sympathize with Nolan’s cries of this being “a sign of great danger for the ordinary people who work in this industry,” even if there were plenty of good reasons for WarnerMedia to make the decision. As Nolan says, this whole ordeal “needs to be addressed through appropriate negotiation with unions, with talent and all the rest.”