Christoper Nolan Slams Warner Bros., Calls HBO Max ‘The Worst Streaming Service’
Just a few months ago, Warner Bros. fought harder than any other movie studio to get a blockbuster into theaters — and only theaters, when they premiered Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. A few months later, Warner Bros. has changed its strategy completely, announcing it would release Wonder Woman 1984 and its entire 2021 theatrical slate on their HBO Max streaming service the same day it hits theaters.
While it’s great news for HBO Max subscribers, the news has been met much less warmly around Hollywood, with some of Warner Bros. financing partners apparently caught off guard by their announcement and some stars reportedly demanding additional payments. Christopher Nolan is no fan of the move either; just months after Tenet’s release — after working with Warner Bros. on almost all of his movies — Nolan released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter slamming Warner Bros. and the HBO Max plan. “Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio,” Nolan said, “and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.”
Yikes. And that wasn’t all, as he also said...
Warner Bros. had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere, both in theaters and in the home, and they are dismantling it as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense.
Double yikes. If this is what a guy who has made millions upon millions of dollars with Warner Bros. is saying on the record, you can only imagine what others are saying behind the scenes. Even if Warner Bros.’ decision isn’t a financial disaster, it could be an enormous creative disaster if filmmakers don’t want to work for them in the future out of fear of decisions like this one. And for the record, HBO Max currently has zero Christopher Nolan movies available for streaming.
Gallery — Every Christopher Nolan Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best: