Obviously, when it comes to the spectrum of how people feel about day-and-date releases of feature films on streaming platforms and in theaters, folks like the CEO of IMAX are going to be on the side of exclusive theatrical windows. But one of the main ways he defends this stance, in a recent interview with Puck, is by pointing out the record levels of piracy that have been seen after Warner Bros. released films on HBO Max in 2021.
Speaking about how 2021 has been such an up-and-down year for theater exhibition, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond continued to be optimistic about the future of cinemas. However, he’s also warning studios that day-and-date releasing in theaters and on streaming will only lead to lots of money lost due to piracy.
“When you look at the data, piracy really kills [day-and-date] movies pretty early in the theatrical run,” said Gelfond.
This is a warning that the IMAX executive gave to the leaders of WarnerMedia when he met with them last year before they talked about moving all of their WB films to streaming in 2021. He warned that WarnerMedia would be starting a war with cinemas that would ultimately hurt the studio and the industry.
“And I said that was starting a nuclear war with exhibition,” he explained. “And if they unilaterally tried to disrupt the business in that way, it was going to come back to bite them. And, as you know, it did.”
Gelfond added, “Some of their movies, like ‘Dune’ and ‘Matrix: Resurrections,’ would do much better with an exclusive theatrical run. There’s no question in my mind, they’re not going to achieve their potential.”
In fact, Gelfond thinks the idea of piracy is really going to hurt “The Matrix: Resurrections,” which arrives in December.
“The audience is people who love to explore the internet,” he said. “You’re basically asking for piracy.”
Obviously, we’ve seen studios already commit to changes in 2022, with most theatrical releases getting (shorter) exclusive theatrical runs. So, there’s some merit to what Gelfond is saying about the money lost with streaming. However, the truth is that streaming isn’t going anywhere and it’ll only become a bigger part of a studio’s plan moving forward. So, it’ll be interesting to see how IMAX evolves to meet that challenge.