The pandemic disrupted the movie industry in a big way and it looks like its influence is here to stay. WarnerMedia has revealed that several Warner Bros movies will be released on its HBO Max streaming service the same day they're released in theaters next year, a sort of continuation of its hybrid movie launch strategy deployed in 2021.
Space Jam: A New Legacy, a sequel to the original 1996 movie made for the next generation of fans, will arrive in theaters and on HBO Max starting later this week. Among the promotions for the movie are tens of thousands of NFTs in the style of old-school lenticular sports cards. Though some of the NFTs are already sold out, many others remain available.
The anticipated Dune adaptation has been delayed once again, but this time only for weeks instead of months. The movie was originally scheduled to hit theaters in December 2020, but as with many movies last year, Warner Bros. ended up bumping it several months to an October 1, 2021, release date. The movie will still arrive in October, but later than expected.
Warner Media today launched an ad-supported subscription tier for its streaming service, HBO Max. This ad-supported tier has been in the works for quite some time, and now that it's here, it allows people to subsidize their subscription cost by injecting ads into the content they watch. As you might imagine, there are a few provisos that go along with the less expensive ad-supported tier, but with HBO promising fewer ads-per-hour than its competitors, it isn't all bad news.
Adult Swim has announced four new spinoff shows based on some of its hits, including one pulled from the Rick and Morty universe. The upcoming animation, which will include Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon as executive producers, will be called The Vindicators and revolve around a group of dysfunctional superheroes.
Verizon recently sold off its rather ill-fitting media business, which included AOL and Yahoo, to a giant Las Vegas resort owner. Now one of its biggest rivals in the telecom market is doing something similar though with a slightly different spin. AT&T is now reportedly in talks to spin off its rather large media business in a deal that could see Harry Potter and Batman on the same large ship as the Discovery Channel and Food Network.
Friends is unquestionably one of the most popular sitcoms in the world, and in the lead up to the launch of HBO Max, the fact that the streaming service would be home to a Friends reunion was one of its major selling points. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic had other plans, ultimately causing production delays for the reunion and making the Friends faithful wait through lockdown. Now, we finally have a premiere date for Friends: The Reunion - as it's officially called - and it's happening in just a couple of weeks.
HBO and ads are two things that have never really been associated with one another, but that's set to change later this year. HBO and WarnerMedia parent company AT&T has indicated in the past that it will roll out an ad-supported version of HBO Max, and currently, AT&T is planning to launch that new subscription tier in June. Thanks to a new report today, we may now have an idea of how much it'll cost when it arrives.
Today's younger generation might not be familiar with the first Space Jam movie, having premiered a quarter of a century ago. Some might not even be familiar with Warner Bros' Looney Tunes property, its characters no longer holding as much power as they did decades ago. What never fades, however, are stories of family, self-discovery, perseverance, and basketball legends. And Space Jam 2, more formally "Space Jam: A New Legacy" promises to deliver loads of those, courtesy of LeBron "King" James.
Today is a big day for those who are looking forward to James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, because today the official red-band trailer for the film has dropped. That, of course, means that the trailer we've embedded below isn't exactly meant for young or sensitive audiences, and even though we imagine a lot of people are still working from home at the moment, it definitely isn't safe for work.
Game delays haven't exactly been a rare thing in the wake of COVID-19, and now it seems that the pandemic has claimed another game. Gotham Knights, the Batman-themed action role-playing game in the works at Warner Bros Montreal has been hit with a delay, and it sounds like it's going to be a significant one, with Warner Bros announcing today that it will no longer be launching in 2021.
WarnerMedia confirmed a new Superman movie is in the making. This new movie will be a reboot AND part of the DC film universe... somehow. At this point in history, anything is possible. They could release a movie that follows Superman's childhood, they could do one where Superman is a very old man... they could just pretend that it's the same Superman and use a different actor.