HBO Max hit a brick wall during its initial release due to Roku not carrying the service. Several months later, and the service is risking it all on Wonder Woman 1984.
HBO Max And Wonder Woman 1984 Betting On Each Other
A sequel to the popular and well received first entry, Wonder Woman 1984 has hit several speed bumps prior to landing on HBO Max. Technically done being filmed over two years ago, for various reasons, the movie hasn't seen the light of day. That doesn't inherently mean it will be bad, but it's not exactly a great sign.
As for HBO Max, a better version of HBO GO and HBO Now, it's done relatively well (the Roku issue is real, however); though it certainly hasn't taken over the market like executives were hoping. Without a flagship television show to anchor the service (a Game of Thrones spinoff would have worked wonders here), or the sort of original programing to force cord-cutters' hands, the figurative glass ceiling needs to be broken.
To be clear, there's a ton of quality original programming on HBO Max. It's just that — and this is something hard to quantify — Warner Brothers was almost for sure hoping its HBO branding would be enough, but there's nothing that's transcending pop culture to make the product hover near or around Netflix, Hulu or Amazon. They still needs their own version of Stranger Things, The Expanse or… yeah… Game of Thrones, to help lift it to that next level.
Digressing back to the theory. Why would Warner put Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max instead of releasing it on the big screen? Well, it's not just because of the pandemic.
“They’re going to make less money for the greater good of building HBO Max,” said Rich Greenfield, a media analyst at LightShed Partners. “This is putting the long-term future of the company ahead of profits.”
“It’s far less about driving new subscribers as it is getting people to know HBO Max exists,” he said. “They have people who pay for HBO Max and don’t use it. The whole initiative is getting people over to Max.”
This, obviously, makes a lot of sense. Honestly, if you're reading this, you likely already know about HBO Max; or you don't. You're here for Wonder Woman 1984 information. Connecting the latter to the former in order to grow a brand isn't an awful idea, even if it comes at the price of immediate financial gain.
Though, that's the entire point. Warner wants HBO Max to be a thing. As the streaming service community continues to get flooded, which will inevitably result in the bubble bursting, only a few will survive. It won't only be those with huge resources to pull from either. It'll be those that did enough to earn a loyal subscriber base.
There is simply no way the current Big Three of streaming (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) can exist, as well as the many offshoots (Peacock, CBS All Access, Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, etc.), all at the time same without it resulting in diminishing returns. The reason for the initial popularity of these services were their affordability as well as their product. However, if a customer must now choose between 20-plus streaming services, the weaker ones are going to lose out.
HBO Max, and Warner for that matter, are hoping Wonder Woman 1984 separates them from the pack. Only time will tell if that ends up being the case. Oh, also, they need to get a deal done with Roku sooner rather than later.
H/T Variety for the Greenfield quotes.
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