It was only yesterday that John Stankey, COO of AT&T (parent company of WarnerMedia), was saying on a conference call that his film studio was going to “rethink” its theatrical release model in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was on the heels of the studio announcing that its animated film “Scoob!” would forego the big screen and instead release straight to VOD. As you might expect, the combination of the two events set off some alarms with theater owners, who are concerned that studios will skip the theatrical window entirely. Well, Stankey, along with Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff are here to clear things up.
The two executives released new statements (via THR) that aim to clarify the comments that Stankey made the previous day. Long story short, all that talk of “rethinking the theatrical model” wasn’t true. Or at least, it was blown out of proportion.
“We are committed to — and are excited about — releasing ‘Tenet’ in theaters this summer or whenever theaters reopen,” Sarnoff explained. “We remain supportive of the theatrical experience and our exhibition partners, and are confident that our tentpole titles, including ‘Tenet’ and ‘Wonder Woman 1984,’ are exactly the type of films that will have people eager to return to theaters.”
As we recently discussed, theater chains in the US are looking at July as the time when they’ll be able to reopen their doors en masse. That’s timed perfectly for the release of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet.” So, as Sarnoff said, at least the studio is still going to release blockbusters in theaters.
Stankey, on the other hand, goes a bit deeper into his words from yesterday and explains what he meant by “rethinking” the model.
“Theatrical films have always been a major part of our ecosystem,” said Stankey. “I fully expect that as we evaluate our business going forward, we will continue to champion creative work that is worthy of the theatrical experience.”
He continued, “This experience will change many things, including customer behaviors and expectations. We’re evaluating our product distribution strategy, re-looking at volumes and the required support levels we need in a down economy. We’re rethinking our theatrical model and looking for ways to accelerate efforts that are consistent with the rapid changes in consumer behavior from the pandemic. Now our focus is on defining and leveraging the new normal across all of our operations.”
Well, that sure doesn’t sound as definitive as theater owners would probably like, huh? He reaffirms the commitment of WarnerMedia to keep producing work that is bound for the big screen, but he also doesn’t deny the fact that, moving forward, the studio is going to also look at the strategy considering the “down economy.”
Basically, WarnerMedia didn’t deny that distribution strategies are going to be altered, but the studio also wants theater owners to know that they’ll have some WB stuff to release on the big screen, even if it’s not the same number of films. It would appear that there’s going to be more to this story down the line.