What this means: Warner does not believe the movie theater business will be back to normal until at least 2022 and in the meantime, it's prioritizing the growth of HBO Max. The question: How will this change consumer behavior for the long-term? https://variety.com/2020/film/news/warner-bros-hbo-max-theaters-dune-matrix-4-1234845342/

AT&T is so large I can't imagine it would have to disclose, but it would be fascinating to find out how much HBO Max is "paying" Warner Bros. (on the internal ledger anyway) for all those movies next year. In the billions, I can only assume.

Also I think getting lost a bit: Warner's movies will come out normally in theaters overseas. And international is the majority of the box office. So the cinema business is hardly being dealt a deadly blow, if we think bigger than the U.S.

The fact that new Warner movies will only be on HBO Max for a month makes them more of a cultural event. We'll all be watching and talking about them at the same time, as with a theatrical release. You can't just put it on your queue and watch whenever, as you can on Netflix.

Self-serving add-on: If you find this thread interesting, please check out my book. I think it shows pretty well how Hollywood got to this point. And if you have a Kindle, it's only $2.99(!!!) right now. https://www.amazon.com/Big-Picture-Fight-Future-Movies-ebook/dp/B073XBSMVY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=