2020 has been the worst to say the least and sadly what could've been at least some kind of comfort for us were all shuttered and cabin fever and overall frustration has set in. My comfort was of course the movies which obviously wasn't immune to the current climate and in fact may never fully recover again. However, this site is for film and film is what I shall discuss.
'Wonder Woman 1984' was set to become one of this year's biggest blockbusters after the mammoth critical and financial success of the original. 'Wonder Woman' was a breath of fresh air for the DC film series after many failed attempts to compete with Marvel. It gave us exactly what we want in a comic book film: an exciting and entertaining film with none of the brooding edginess of 'Batman v. Superman' or 'Suicide Squad' and it gave us a great role model for women and young girls without shoving it down your throat.
So after three delays from June to December the announcement came from Warner Bros. that the film will now have a home on the newly released streaming service HBO MAX starting Christmas Day. While the film is also releasing into theaters the same day, I think its safe to say that there's little to no chance that anyone will be attending as many states have once again begun locking down. As the title says, while it's nice for people to finally experience the film after waiting so long it's pretty much a guarantee and sad fact that 'Wonder Woman '84' is gonna flop.
The film's original budget was 200 million but due to the many delays and of course throwing in the budget of marketing the debt has racked up considerably. For those unaware, film studios obtain their budgets mainly through sponsorship, marketing, and investors. Basically it's the same as a bank loan essentially and like those loans, they rack up interest and they rack it up quickly. This is the same fate suffered by the Walt Disney Company from their recent 'Mulan' reboot which has become infamous in its own right and losing the studio more than 250 million dollars as of November.
So with a lack of theatrical attendance this Christmas and likely very few prints even being sent out to theaters, you'd think HBO sounds like the right direction. The problem here is this: HBO MAX along with many other streaming services offer a free trial period. People will only sign up for the service to watch 'Wonder Woman' then cancel or an even easier method people do is to simply pirate the film come Christmas Day. Even if Warner were to follow Disney's method of a surcharge in addition to the service, this will merely anger viewers and again lead to pirating.
So what to do? Not sure to be honest. The best route seems to go direct to video or an early Blu-Ray release. It may even benefit from a theatrical re-release once things have calmed down next year but in the end, it looks like Wonder Woman is destined to be another cinematic casualty of 2020.
What are your thoughts? Should they release it on VOD? Do you like the idea of HBO MAX? Let me know in the comments section below.
Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, HBO MAX, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Company.
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