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Warner Bros. Discovery has been quietly culling content material from HBO Max — together with a number of Warner Bros. motion pictures that have been completely streaming on the service — in what seems to be an effort to chop prices.
Inside the previous few weeks, a minimum of six Warner Bros. motion pictures have been faraway from HBO Max: “Moonshot,” a sci-fi rom-com starring Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse; artificial-intelligence dystopia comedy “Superintelligence,” starring Melissa McCarthy; Robert Zemeckis’ 2020 remake of “The Witches,” starring Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci and Chris Rock; comedy “An American Pickle,” starring Seth Rogen as an immigrant who wakes up after being pickled for 100 years; Doug Liman heist pic “Locked Down” with Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor; and drama “Allure Metropolis Kings” from director Angel Manuel Soto.
All six of the movies have been labeled as “Max Originals.” The removals have been noted by customers on Reddit in a dialogue of the Warner Bros. decision to nix plans to release “Batgirl” — in theaters, on HBO Max or through another platform.
In the meantime, the reboot of comedy classic “House Party,” from LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill, was beforehand slated to premiere July 28 on HBO Max however was scrubbed from the discharge calendar.
To make sure, streaming platforms repeatedly add and take away content material. What’s uncommon is that Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t announce the removals of the six WB streaming exclusives from HBO Max. (The flicks can be found to lease or buy via third-party VOD providers.) Additionally price noting is that “Moonshot” was pulled from HBO Max solely about three months after its March 31 debut.
HBO Max’s removing of the Warner Bros. motion pictures could possibly be a part of WBD’s transfer to get streaming-content fee obligations for underperforming titles off its books. Within the case of an unreleased film just like the “Home Social gathering” remake, the media conglomerate could possibly be accounting for it as a tax write-down, as it is expected to do with “Batgirl” and “Scoob: Holiday Haunt” (the latter of which was a sequel to the animated “Scoob!”).
Reps for Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t reply to inquiries in regards to the HBO Max movie removals. The corporate is scheduled to report second-quarter 2022 earnings Thursday (Aug. 4) after market shut. Warner Bros. Discovery assumed an enormous chunk of $43 billion in debt via the WarnerMedia deal; the merged firm had a debt-to-equity ratio of round 4.6x following the deal shut.
Like different streaming providers, HBO Max points month-to-month updates about titles being added and eliminated — for instance, it introduced that all eight original “Harry Potter” films will be exiting HBO Max at the end of August, whereas it’s additionally including an enormous bucket of content material together with 28 films from A24 resembling “Room” and “Ex Machina.” However not one of the Warner Bros. unique movies purged from HBO Max have been included in latest updates.
As of now, a number of Warner Bros. film exclusives for HBO Max are nonetheless on the service. These embrace the 2022 remake of “Father of the Bride” starring Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan; Steven Soderbergh’s “Let Them All Discuss” starring Meryl Streep and “Kimi” starring Zoë Kravitz; and “The Fallout,” “No Sudden Transfer,” “Unpregnant” and “8-Bit Christmas.”
In December 2021, earlier than David Zaslav’s Discovery closed the WarnerMedia transaction with AT&T, WarnerMedia launched a marketing campaign touting main releases coming to HBO Max in 2022, together with “Home Social gathering,” “Scoob: Vacation Hang-out” and “Moonshot.” The marketing campaign’s sizzle reel that was initially shared on YouTube has since been made non-public. You’ll be able to nonetheless watch it on Twitter:
At present @HBOMax launched a brand new marketing campaign introducing the line-up for 2022, that includes extremely anticipated unique programming, @WBPictures movies made completely for HBO Max, new content material from @DCComics and Wizarding World franchises, hit motion pictures, and extra: https://t.co/DoS8nv519e pic.twitter.com/bsfy6oOZUQ
— Inside HBO Max (@InsideHBOMax) December 22, 2021
Pictured above: Cole Sprouse and Lana Condor in “Moonshot”
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