Nolan criticized Warner for allowing new films to be released in theaters and streaming media at the same time: disrespecting the hard work of filmmakers

Christopher Nolan, a famous Hollywood director, criticized Warner's decision to release all 17 movies in North American theaters and streaming media simultaneously next year. He believed that Warner did not communicate with the filmmakers, actors, and people involved in these movies in advance about this decision, but sold these people's hard work at a low price on its own initiative. Foreign media THR also reported that many people in the industry believed that this decision was an insult to filmmakers and their agents.

"Dune" director Denis Villeneuve is said to be very determined that the film should be released in the traditional theatrical release mode. In addition, the movie "In the Heights" has attracted fierce competition from multiple downstream companies, and director Jon M. Chu and musical creator Lin-Manuel Miranda chose Warner based on the consideration of focusing on theatrical distribution. Now that he has learned of Warner's decision, Jon M. Chu is "very shocked."

Warner Bros. Pictures Chairman Toby Emmerich later reassured Chu that the film would still "be released in theaters around the world," but reports indicated that everyone in the industry knew that "as long as these films are released on HBO Max, high-quality versions will soon be available around the world."

It is said that among all Warner executives, only Courtenay Valenti, chairman of Warner Bros. Production Development, asked whether important creative partners should be notified in advance of this decision, but she was quickly silenced. The report said that it was heard that this unprecedented large-scale simultaneous streaming decision was the idea of ​​Warner CCO Carolyn Blackwood. She believed that Warner's film list in 2021 was relatively weak. In order to prevent embarrassing box office figures and to cater to higher-ups who were very obsessed with streaming media, she came up with this idea.

The industry believes that Warner Bros.' upper echelons, WarnerMedia Group, and Warner Media's parent company AT&T do not understand the film industry and its relationship with filmmakers. For example, they believe that this move will cause Warner to sacrifice the huge profits from selling movies in multiple forms to multiple platforms around the world.

One thing is that Warner has always been regarded as the major film company that attaches the most importance to film creators. However, an agent who represents important filmmakers/stars who have a cooperative relationship with Warner said that Warner’s current decision makes people feel like they are saying: 'We don’t care about creators.'"
A top agent who "like everyone else has been dealing with shocked, angry clients most of the time" said: "Warner has made a terrible mistake. There have never been so many people angry about the same thing."

This move may affect the income of those involved in the film, so some people hope that the various unions can intervene. THR said that the Writers Guild refused to comment on this.

Interests are of course a very important issue. There is already a saying in the industry called "Wonder Woman money" - the box office of a movie will be affected by simultaneous streaming, which may affect the back-end profits (related to the box office) of the filmmakers and star actors involved. Therefore, Warner gave the leading actress Gal Gadot and others millions of dollars for the decision to synchronize "Wonder Woman 1984" because they hope there will be a third film in the series.

But in this way, the key personnel of other films hope to get higher compensation standards. For example, it is said that James Gunn, the new director of "Suicide Squad", is not very satisfied. The compensation calculation for him and others for the film is not very generous. The New York Times said that the star actors of "Dune" were also very shocked because some of them agreed to reduce the advance salary in order to reduce production costs, and then get the back-end compensation brought by the box office. The key participants of these 17 films will have difficult negotiations with Warner.

Many of Warner's partners are also angry, and some have raised questions: Is it legal to decide on such a distribution method without consulting the partners when there is a contract? There are reports that Legendary Pictures, the main investor of Dune and Godzilla vs. Kong, has or will send a lawyer's letter to Warner. These two films are also among the 17 Warner releases that will be released in theaters and streaming media simultaneously next year.

Warner's other co-investors, such as Village Roadshow and Bron, are also very angry and may take Warner to court.

There is also one of the biggest victims: movie theaters. Whether the decision to release streaming media simultaneously will have a long-term impact on the audience's viewing habits is unclear. Jason Kilar, CEO of Warner Media Group, told CNBC that they made this decision for movie fans: "If we focus on consumers from beginning to end, we will lead the industry."