Streaming has arrived. Last week, Warner Media announced that all of their 2021 theatrical slate will be released simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters. A puzzling move that is likely equal parts financial caution, a move to get movies to people in uncertain times during a pandemic, and a desperate attempt to give HBO Max a shot in the arm. Cinefiles and film critics panicked, while many rejoiced that they’d be able to see new movies from their couch as quickly as possible.
While I recognize the drawbacks of theatrical releases; the costs, the trip it takes to get out there, and the benefits of streaming, I think that this is a bad development. There are people who know more about the financial ramifications of streaming releases, particularly on the sustainability of blockbusters financially, but I want to talk about what I’ve observed in the culture of streaming. Things I’ve picked up on in conversations and articles, but also in my own experience in watching movies on streaming. How the medium of streaming forms the message of the movies.
I was educated on streaming. When I really got into films in high school, I dove into movies on Neflix, and later Hulu, Kanopy, HBO and now Criterion. Streaming is fantastic for watching old movies. It allows you to select older films that are difficult to come by and watch them on your own schedule. It’s also fantastic for TV, where the nature of the shorter format allows for flexibility that broadcast schedules don’t allow. There are drawbacks to our collective consumption of Television, we’ll likely never watch a show like “MASH” together again, but overall TV has benefited from streaming distribution. Just look at the successes of “Breaking Bad” and “The Office”, which have had second and third lives on Netflix.
This benefit is not seen in streaming movies however. In the traditional theatrical format, movies need to be heavily marketed to build hype and get butts in theaters. This marketing campaign gets lots of people interested in the movies, and it builds up events for people to all go see the movie on opening weekend, or otherwise see it a few weeks later. With streaming, the nature of the event is fundamentally different. If there is a buildup, it’s a light ad campaign with perhaps some critical buzz. But most companies expect viewers to be guided to their films via algorithm.
The upcoming “We Can Be Heroes” is a sequel to “Sharkboy and Lavagirl,” movie that should be nostalgic for young mellineals who grew up on the director’s early works like Spy Kids and the original film. It’s a nostalgia sequel by an influential director that has a major star in Pedro Pascal. But Netflix only announced the film several weeks before the film is set to stream there. Maybe millions of people will watch “We Can Be Heroes,” but people aren’t talking about it because the most Netflix is doing to promote it is tweeting out a poster and a 45 second preview. No need to try and make it a hit, because the algorithms will send it to those who want to see it. Probably.
Aside from the diminished hype the streaming model brings, (which for now is mostly relegated to the giant Netflix and its pre-streaming war cohorts Hulu and Amazon) the streaming experience is inferior to the theatrical experience in numerous ways. Aside from gripes about phones and the substandard experience of viewing movies on crumby TVs, the nature of sitting own on your couch, browsing for minutes upon minutes trying to decide what movie to watch, and then pausing whenever, you feel like it or whenever you get bored detaches the viewer from the time and place they see the movie. When you build hype for a movie, when you’ve got to see it, when you schedule a time and place to see it with your loved ones, when you go across town to wait in line to see it, you are placing yourself in a certain place and time. You’re forming a memory in that event, instead of scrolling across the screen.
One of my first memories is seeing Ron Howard’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” I remember the movie of course, but I mostly remember exiting the theater on a cold November night. I remember looking back from the parking lot at a giant poster of the Grinch, and seeing snow fall down. I’m pretty sure I was in Orlando at the time, so it probably didn’t snow that night, but the act of going out to the theater, coming home from it, and the reality of the movie invading my own reality has stuck with me to this day. I don’t think I’d have the same reaction as a kid if I had watched it merely on TV.
I enjoy subscribing to HBO Max. It offers a wide variety of movies and TV shows that I can enjoy and educate myself with. But I don’t think WarnerMedia’s decision to release all their 2021 movies simultaneously on streaming and in theaters is good for those movies, or for the audience’s experience of them. I hope audiences realize that in non-pandemic times, theaters are the way to go, and that an abundance of convenience isn’t necessarily the best thing for our experience. After all, all we’re left with after we watch a movie is our memories of it. We should try to make those memories as impactful as possible.
TheFlickReview 