The Matrix may have been resurrected today through the latest installment in the saga, but the brief custom of releasing movies in theaters at the same time as on streaming platforms has died, we’ll see if definitely.
The long-awaited revival of the Matrix franchise, The Matrix Resurrections , landed in theaters and on HBO Max at the same time. That culminates a year of unprecedented availability of new movies, thanks to the collaboration of the giants WarnerMedia and AT&T, with various streaming platforms. As the owner of both the Warner Bros movie studio and streaming service HBO Max, WarnerMedia made every 2021 WB movie available in theaters and on its streaming service simultaneously over the past year, all for free. additional for HBO Max subscribers.
COVID changed everything
WarnerMedia was unrivaled both in the number of movies shown the same day they were released in theaters, and in making them available to the public at no additional cost, but it was not alone. Other studios, big and small, have experimented with online releases the same day as their theatrical releases, as the COVID-19 pandemic closed theaters or made people less willing to go see movies physically, and take the risks that this entails.
Disney, the perennial king of the box office, introduced its Premier Access system, charging an additional fee on Disney Plus. And Paramount and Universal occasionally and strategically released a new movie on their parent companies’ streaming services at no additional cost.
But after The Matrix Resurrections , HBO Max’s paradigm of online content availability is collapsing. Even WarnerMedia has promised that its 2022 WB movies will be at least a month and a half in theaters exclusively , before making the jump to digital platforms. For movie fans, that means the short-lived fad of being able to watch home releases at the same time they were released in theaters has come to an end.
Goodbye to simultaneous premieres
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the rigid release cycles for new movies were unchanging for decades. New films had at least a few months of exclusivity in theaters. Movies then moved to home viewing formats such as the defunct DVD, Blu-ray, and online content rentals and purchases, all of which require you to pay up front to watch a specific movie. Finally, six to nine months after a movie hit theaters, it was available on a pay TV network or online streaming service.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed all the movie release rules. As theaters closed, studios and movie distributors ended up doing simultaneous releases. However, this practice has had little experience, and it seems that it has finally died of success.
