TV Streaming Discussion: HBO MAX UPDATE: WTF is Going on? Merger with PARAMOUNT?!
- Thread starter playahaitian
- Start date
The issue I’m having with DC is what is the continuity of all these movies.
Everything coming out seems to be separate from each other.
Not understanding where they going with everything.
Everything coming out seems to be separate from each other.
Not understanding where they going with everything.
But why do they have to be connected?? Just because Marvel does it that way doesn't mean DC has to do it that way.
In fact, it limits the creativity. The Watchmen, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Joker, The RED sagas, Superman returns, The Batman, and many more are great films by themselves that do not need to be linked to anything. Keeping everything in one "universe" establishes parameters set by other creators.
Kevin Feige has created a box that is making it difficult to produce great movies that feel different. The movies are cool......but no longer great.
I get that.
We got a Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix and there is a sequel scheduled and possibly a 3rd movie.
Batman just came out and there was a different Joker.
Pennyworth is getting ready to release a 3rd season, it originally was a prequel to “Gotham” but DC has switched it to the DC movies. No word if it connects to the “Justice League” movies or recent Batman or Joker movies.
CW is doing its own thing.
And we have the HBO MAX shows with “Peacemaker” along with the upcoming “Batgirl” movie and “Green Lantern”. No word yet on where they fit in at this time.
Basically we got all these projects going in different directions.
I look at DC movies like one-shots in comics. Basically they are self-contained stories that have little or no connection to the other movies. You could also look at them as taking place in a multi-verse on various different Earths.
That sounds good.
But they need to let folks know if that’s the case.
Word is going around now they plan on bringing new people in to reboot and clean up what they been doing over the past 10+ years.
So who knows what the fuck they doing right now.
'Made for Love' canceled after two seasons at HBO Max
HBO Max is pulling the plug on the Cristin Milioti-led tech dramedy 'Made for Love' after two seasons.
'Made for Love' canceled after two seasons at HBO Max
HBO Max is pulling the plug on the Cristin Milioti-led tech dramedy 'Made for Love' after two seasons.ew.com
That’s too bad. 1st season was pretty good, and planned to check out the 2nd season eventually - will do so at some point.
HBO Max Is Doing Well — So Of Course Changes Are Coming
Elimination of the unscripted division, fewer straight-to-Max movies, and even a new name are among the rumors looming over the service.
www.vulture.com
@Helico-pterFunk
HBO Max Is Doing Well — So Of Course Changes Are Coming
Elimination of the unscripted division, fewer straight-to-Max movies, and even a new name are among the rumors looming over the service.
@Helico-pterFunk
Hmm ... hopefully they don’t mess with the format and structure too much. Got a nice deal presently. Included in the bundle, for $8 they give us HBO, HBO Max, and Showtime collectively.
HBO Max has been consistent with their stuff thus far. Don’t fix something that ain’t too broken, right?
HBO Max Is Doing Well — So Of Course Changes Are Coming
By Josef Adalian
This story first ran in Buffering, Vulture’s newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to vulture.com/buffering and subscribe today!
Don’t worry, there will still be dragons. Photo-Illustration: Vulture. Photo: HBO Max
As much as this has been the year from hell for Netflix, 2022 up until now has been nothing short of heavenly for rival HBO Max. Subscriber numbers are way up, its content is connecting with audiences (and awards voters), and even its initially buggy user interface has been vastly improved. But while success usually brings stability in business, the second half of the year will likely be anything but stable for HBO Max. With new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav already moving fast to put his stamp on his newly supersized company, industry insiders are buzzing about big changes being contemplated at the streamer, ranging from the elimination of entire program departments to even ditching the HBO Max branding altogether.
If you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention the last few months to the reporting surrounding the Zaslav-led Discovery takeover of the former WarnerMedia, nothing about the notion of significant disruption at any division within the company will come as a surprise. Lots of very talented execs have already been pushed out the door, ambitious film and TV projects have been scrapped, and an entire streaming platform (RIP, CNN+) was shut down days into existence. The 11 months it took for federal regulators to approve the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery gave Zaslav and top lieutenant JB Perrette (now head of global streaming at the company) nearly a year to contemplate how they wanted to do things. The fact that things are (mostly) going swimmingly at HBO Max isn’t going to stop them from executing his vision for how to build on whatever success the streamer has had to date, as well as fix any mistakes he thinks were made by former owners AT&T.
So far, Zaslav and his team have made only one definitive pronouncement about the future of the service: HBO Max and Discovery+ will be folded into a single unified app at some point (relatively) soon, once the not-inconsiderable technical challenges can be figured out (there’s a lot of content on Discovery) and the company decides how much more, if anything, to charge for the supersized service. Beyond that, everything else is speculation — though as usual in Hollywood, that’s not keeping folks from chattering about what may be in store on several fronts:
➽ Will Warner Bros. keep making movies just for Max? Last year, former WarnerMedia boss Jason Kilar announced an ambitious plan to have Warner Bros. Pictures produce at least ten big feature films directly for Max. One of them — a remake of Father of the Bride — debuted last week. But I’ve talked to industry insiders who say it’s now an open question whether Zaslav wants to keep soaking millions into expensive movies that never see the inside of a cinema. We got the first hint of this philosophy last month when news broke that the exec had decided to scrap an already-announced Max feature film based on DC’s Wonder Twins characters. THR reported the move was made because Zaslav doesn’t want any DC films to debut without making a stop in theaters, and that the other movies on the Made for Max slate should now come in with a budget under $35 million.
Industry insiders say it’s an open question whether Zaslav wants to keep soaking millions into expensive movies that never see the inside of a cinema.
Still, one industry insider tells me there’s a broader debate going on inside the company about whether even lower-budget films like Father of the Bride might benefit from having a brief theatrical run, particularly since all Warner movies now come to Max roughly 45 days after opening in moviehouses. That would effectively end the idea of Warner Bros. Pictures making movies directly for Max, though it’s possible the studio could still make the same number of films in total: They’d just play in theaters before jumping to streaming. While this would fly against current conventional wisdom in the film business that there’s no longer room for “smaller” films in cinemas, “Zaslav is very much a believer in theatrical windows,” one industry source told me. A rep for the studio declined comment.
➽ Does Discovery take over HBO Max’s unscripted unit? Discovery’s programming expertise is unscripted television, and with so many Discovery-branded reality shows headed to Max as part of the plan to unite the apps, there has been talk about big cuts to Max’s unscripted team for months. Insider’s Elaine Low last month reported on industry speculation that top unscripted execs on the Warners side could be headed for the exits soon, while last week Puck News noted that Max unscripted staffers — the folks behind titles such as Legendary and FBoy Island — were convinced layoffs were going to be announced last Friday even though there were no such announcements planned. But as Puck also noted, those staffers are likely right to be worried. Given Discovery’s expertise on the unscripted front, industry insiders I spoke with this week tell me it’s possible Team Zaslav might decide to just eliminate the HBO Max reality-show division altogether, while continuing to fund the separate (and highly decorated) documentaries unit. An HBO Max spokeswoman declined comment.
➽ A name change? While this is probably lower down on the priority list for Warner Bros. Discovery execs, there’s once again talk that the HBO Max name may not be long for this world. Speculation about a name change has been going on almost from the minute Max was announced. Many folks inside the pre-merger company worried not only about diluting the HBO brand but more importantly were concerned that HBO had very little resonance for audiences outside of the U.S. (In much of Europe, for instance, HBO programs have long aired under the Sky TV banner.) CNBC’s Alex Sherman has been all over this internal debate, documenting dissatisfaction with the branding back in December 2020 and then again last October, when he reported that those same anti-Max dissidents were getting ready to lobby Zaslav to ditch the name for something else once he took over.
One non-Warner Bros. Discovery producer (and former exec) I spoke with thinks a rebranding would let Zaslav fix a big AT&T mistake.
This time, as Sherman noted, the justification for a switcheroo is that with all the new Discovery content coming to the platform, “HBO Max” doesn’t offer the best description of what the service offered consumers. A new ID would thus provide an opening to reach the millions of consumers (both in the U.S. and elsewhere) for whom 90 Day Fiancé is a bigger draw than Succession. HBO-produced shows would still be branded as such on the app, of course, but the marketing for the platform would then treat HBO shows as simply one planet in a bigger content universe. One non-Warner Bros. Discovery producer (and former exec) I spoke with thinks a rebranding would let Zaslav fix a big AT&T mistake, though he actually argues for a slightly less dramatic change to the name. “It should always have been HBO+,” he said, predicting the current “Max” moniker “will not last.”
As interesting as the pro-name change argument may be, Zaslav may ultimately decide it’s not worth the investment in time and resources to make what is at the core a cosmetic change. And as for the other possible changes at Max discussed in this week’s newsletter, it is worth repeating: This is speculation. According to multiple sources familiar with the thinking of Warner Bros. Discover execs, very little final has been decided beyond combining HBO Max and Discovery+. So while there are strong hints that some layoffs are all but certain to hit Max’s reality-TV team, they could end up being less dramatic than what some in the reality-TV community fear.
Likewise, in terms of Max original movies, THR’s reporting indicates those titles with lower budgets and already in the pipeline will probably be fine. Zaslav may decide to keep having his movie studio produce a slate of cost-conscious films exclusive to Max. Or he could simply decide that, moving forward, those same titles now deemed “Max Originals” will get at least some form of theatrical release, even if box-office expectations are modest. If so, that would be win-win for the film studio (it’s still making movies) and the streaming side (they’re still getting movies which will be brand new to the vast majority of subscribers).
What also seems unlikely to change much is the HBO Max content team run by network vet Casey Bloys, which as noted earlier has been on fire of late. Headed into next month’s Emmy nominations, the combo of HBO and HBO Max is the favorite to score the most number of noms, having just cleaned up in the just-announced TCA Awards nominations. This year has also seen the launch of several hits, including Winning Time, The Gilded Age, Julia, Our Flag Means Death, and Peacekeeper. And while it’s too soon to say how critics and audiences will react, the August arrival of House of the Dragon promises to revive at least a little bit of that Game of Thrones magic.
Even before the streaming era, HBO has gone through periods where things have seemed a bit bumpy and observers have questioned its future (remember all those stories declaring the network toast after The Sopranos and Sex and the City signed off?) It is possible that after a year of non-stop momentum, HBO Max could be in for a little bit of turbulence as new owners step into the cockpit and adjust the service’s flight plan. But as long as the streamer’s core content pipeline remains strong, and subscriber growth stays steady, it seems likely all the changes (and rumors about changes) swirling around HBO Max will end up being remembered as little more than background noise.
By Josef Adalian
This story first ran in Buffering, Vulture’s newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to vulture.com/buffering and subscribe today!
Don’t worry, there will still be dragons. Photo-Illustration: Vulture. Photo: HBO Max
As much as this has been the year from hell for Netflix, 2022 up until now has been nothing short of heavenly for rival HBO Max. Subscriber numbers are way up, its content is connecting with audiences (and awards voters), and even its initially buggy user interface has been vastly improved. But while success usually brings stability in business, the second half of the year will likely be anything but stable for HBO Max. With new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav already moving fast to put his stamp on his newly supersized company, industry insiders are buzzing about big changes being contemplated at the streamer, ranging from the elimination of entire program departments to even ditching the HBO Max branding altogether.
If you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention the last few months to the reporting surrounding the Zaslav-led Discovery takeover of the former WarnerMedia, nothing about the notion of significant disruption at any division within the company will come as a surprise. Lots of very talented execs have already been pushed out the door, ambitious film and TV projects have been scrapped, and an entire streaming platform (RIP, CNN+) was shut down days into existence. The 11 months it took for federal regulators to approve the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery gave Zaslav and top lieutenant JB Perrette (now head of global streaming at the company) nearly a year to contemplate how they wanted to do things. The fact that things are (mostly) going swimmingly at HBO Max isn’t going to stop them from executing his vision for how to build on whatever success the streamer has had to date, as well as fix any mistakes he thinks were made by former owners AT&T.
So far, Zaslav and his team have made only one definitive pronouncement about the future of the service: HBO Max and Discovery+ will be folded into a single unified app at some point (relatively) soon, once the not-inconsiderable technical challenges can be figured out (there’s a lot of content on Discovery) and the company decides how much more, if anything, to charge for the supersized service. Beyond that, everything else is speculation — though as usual in Hollywood, that’s not keeping folks from chattering about what may be in store on several fronts:
➽ Will Warner Bros. keep making movies just for Max? Last year, former WarnerMedia boss Jason Kilar announced an ambitious plan to have Warner Bros. Pictures produce at least ten big feature films directly for Max. One of them — a remake of Father of the Bride — debuted last week. But I’ve talked to industry insiders who say it’s now an open question whether Zaslav wants to keep soaking millions into expensive movies that never see the inside of a cinema. We got the first hint of this philosophy last month when news broke that the exec had decided to scrap an already-announced Max feature film based on DC’s Wonder Twins characters. THR reported the move was made because Zaslav doesn’t want any DC films to debut without making a stop in theaters, and that the other movies on the Made for Max slate should now come in with a budget under $35 million.
Industry insiders say it’s an open question whether Zaslav wants to keep soaking millions into expensive movies that never see the inside of a cinema.
Still, one industry insider tells me there’s a broader debate going on inside the company about whether even lower-budget films like Father of the Bride might benefit from having a brief theatrical run, particularly since all Warner movies now come to Max roughly 45 days after opening in moviehouses. That would effectively end the idea of Warner Bros. Pictures making movies directly for Max, though it’s possible the studio could still make the same number of films in total: They’d just play in theaters before jumping to streaming. While this would fly against current conventional wisdom in the film business that there’s no longer room for “smaller” films in cinemas, “Zaslav is very much a believer in theatrical windows,” one industry source told me. A rep for the studio declined comment.
➽ Does Discovery take over HBO Max’s unscripted unit? Discovery’s programming expertise is unscripted television, and with so many Discovery-branded reality shows headed to Max as part of the plan to unite the apps, there has been talk about big cuts to Max’s unscripted team for months. Insider’s Elaine Low last month reported on industry speculation that top unscripted execs on the Warners side could be headed for the exits soon, while last week Puck News noted that Max unscripted staffers — the folks behind titles such as Legendary and FBoy Island — were convinced layoffs were going to be announced last Friday even though there were no such announcements planned. But as Puck also noted, those staffers are likely right to be worried. Given Discovery’s expertise on the unscripted front, industry insiders I spoke with this week tell me it’s possible Team Zaslav might decide to just eliminate the HBO Max reality-show division altogether, while continuing to fund the separate (and highly decorated) documentaries unit. An HBO Max spokeswoman declined comment.
➽ A name change? While this is probably lower down on the priority list for Warner Bros. Discovery execs, there’s once again talk that the HBO Max name may not be long for this world. Speculation about a name change has been going on almost from the minute Max was announced. Many folks inside the pre-merger company worried not only about diluting the HBO brand but more importantly were concerned that HBO had very little resonance for audiences outside of the U.S. (In much of Europe, for instance, HBO programs have long aired under the Sky TV banner.) CNBC’s Alex Sherman has been all over this internal debate, documenting dissatisfaction with the branding back in December 2020 and then again last October, when he reported that those same anti-Max dissidents were getting ready to lobby Zaslav to ditch the name for something else once he took over.
One non-Warner Bros. Discovery producer (and former exec) I spoke with thinks a rebranding would let Zaslav fix a big AT&T mistake.
This time, as Sherman noted, the justification for a switcheroo is that with all the new Discovery content coming to the platform, “HBO Max” doesn’t offer the best description of what the service offered consumers. A new ID would thus provide an opening to reach the millions of consumers (both in the U.S. and elsewhere) for whom 90 Day Fiancé is a bigger draw than Succession. HBO-produced shows would still be branded as such on the app, of course, but the marketing for the platform would then treat HBO shows as simply one planet in a bigger content universe. One non-Warner Bros. Discovery producer (and former exec) I spoke with thinks a rebranding would let Zaslav fix a big AT&T mistake, though he actually argues for a slightly less dramatic change to the name. “It should always have been HBO+,” he said, predicting the current “Max” moniker “will not last.”
As interesting as the pro-name change argument may be, Zaslav may ultimately decide it’s not worth the investment in time and resources to make what is at the core a cosmetic change. And as for the other possible changes at Max discussed in this week’s newsletter, it is worth repeating: This is speculation. According to multiple sources familiar with the thinking of Warner Bros. Discover execs, very little final has been decided beyond combining HBO Max and Discovery+. So while there are strong hints that some layoffs are all but certain to hit Max’s reality-TV team, they could end up being less dramatic than what some in the reality-TV community fear.
Likewise, in terms of Max original movies, THR’s reporting indicates those titles with lower budgets and already in the pipeline will probably be fine. Zaslav may decide to keep having his movie studio produce a slate of cost-conscious films exclusive to Max. Or he could simply decide that, moving forward, those same titles now deemed “Max Originals” will get at least some form of theatrical release, even if box-office expectations are modest. If so, that would be win-win for the film studio (it’s still making movies) and the streaming side (they’re still getting movies which will be brand new to the vast majority of subscribers).
What also seems unlikely to change much is the HBO Max content team run by network vet Casey Bloys, which as noted earlier has been on fire of late. Headed into next month’s Emmy nominations, the combo of HBO and HBO Max is the favorite to score the most number of noms, having just cleaned up in the just-announced TCA Awards nominations. This year has also seen the launch of several hits, including Winning Time, The Gilded Age, Julia, Our Flag Means Death, and Peacekeeper. And while it’s too soon to say how critics and audiences will react, the August arrival of House of the Dragon promises to revive at least a little bit of that Game of Thrones magic.
Even before the streaming era, HBO has gone through periods where things have seemed a bit bumpy and observers have questioned its future (remember all those stories declaring the network toast after The Sopranos and Sex and the City signed off?) It is possible that after a year of non-stop momentum, HBO Max could be in for a little bit of turbulence as new owners step into the cockpit and adjust the service’s flight plan. But as long as the streamer’s core content pipeline remains strong, and subscriber growth stays steady, it seems likely all the changes (and rumors about changes) swirling around HBO Max will end up being remembered as little more than background noise.
HBO cancels 'The Time Traveler's Wife' after one season
HBO has axed 'The Time Traveler's Wife' starring Theo James and Rose Leslie after one six-episode season.
Birdgirl
Anybody got a verdict on this?
I will assume the Black dude on the poster is a flaming homosexual by looking at his costume.
Synopsis
After being named CEO of the world's largest corporation, Judy Ken Sebben has to find a way to maintain her work/superhero life balance.
Anybody got a verdict on this?
I will assume the Black dude on the poster is a flaming homosexual by looking at his costume.
Synopsis
After being named CEO of the world's largest corporation, Judy Ken Sebben has to find a way to maintain her work/superhero life balance.
This shit is fucking crazy
Warner Bros. Quietly Removes 6 Original Movies From HBO Max
Warner Bros. Discovery is removing six original films exclusive to HBO Max from the streaming platform. The platform features notable television shows from across Warner Brothers' properties, many of which are HBO and HBO Max originals, as well as popular movie franchises like the DC Comics films. At the height of Covid-19 restrictions, Warner Bros. retooled many of its planned theatrical releases to premiere exclusively on HBO Max. While this helped the studio mitigate some of its losses, several of the films failed to meet expectations as a result.
When Warner Bros. announced that Batgirl will not have a theatrical or streaming release, disappointed fans took to Reddit to express their concerns. Many were shocked to discover that Batgirl was in post-production when the studio decided to cancel the project. In part, Warner Bros.' decision was due to poor audience reception at test screenings and the belief that Batgirl did not meet the standard for a tentpole DCEU release. While discussing the sudden axing of Batgirl, fans questioned the decision not to have the film premiere of HBO Max instead. A few fans then noted that over several weeks HBO Max has been slowly removing a number of its original films.
Six HBO Max original films have been discreetly removed from the platform by Warner Bros. Variety reported that the films removed from HBO Max are The Witches, Moonshot, Superintelligence, An American Pickle, Charm City Kings, and Locked Down. These movies featured the likes of Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Melissa McCarthy, and Seth Rogen, all of whom typically attract audiences from their name recognition alone. Further, the sci-fi rom-com Moonshot, starring Cole Sprouse and Lana Condor, was pulled from HBO Max less than three months after it premiered on March 31, 2022. This was a surprising turn for a film that otherwise seemed specifically crafted to attract a younger audience to the streaming platform.
Check out Variety's take below:
It is worth noting that HBO Max is not the only streaming platform to regularly cycle its content. This is a common practice by streaming sites to keep their catalog fresh and enticing to new customers. However, other platforms typically make an official announcement detailing the content that is up for removal, allowing audiences a final opportunity to watch. HBO Max did not do that here, in fact, they did it so quietly that fans did not notice until the discussion around Batgirl emerged. This is also a particularly unusual move because while other platforms cycle their licensed content, Warner Bros. removed Max Originals for which they hold exclusive streaming rights.
These HBO Max exclusive films are still available to purchase or rent through video-on-demand services, but it seems unlikely they will return to the streaming platform. Some have speculated that it must be a financial decision on Warner Bros.' part, since there is otherwise no downside to having a fuller exclusive catalog on the service. Earlier this year, the company merged with Discovery Inc. in an attempt to claim a larger stake in the entertainment market. As a result of the merger, Warner Bros. assumed $43 billion in debt. The company is expected to release its second-quarter earnings for 2022 later this week which may provide some answers to this peculiar turn of events.
---------------------------
I've never seen a Streamer fucking remove their own fucking films ...
Warner Bros. Quietly Removes 6 Original Movies From HBO Max
Warner Bros. Discovery is removing six original films exclusive to HBO Max from the streaming platform. The platform features notable television shows from across Warner Brothers' properties, many of which are HBO and HBO Max originals, as well as popular movie franchises like the DC Comics films. At the height of Covid-19 restrictions, Warner Bros. retooled many of its planned theatrical releases to premiere exclusively on HBO Max. While this helped the studio mitigate some of its losses, several of the films failed to meet expectations as a result.
When Warner Bros. announced that Batgirl will not have a theatrical or streaming release, disappointed fans took to Reddit to express their concerns. Many were shocked to discover that Batgirl was in post-production when the studio decided to cancel the project. In part, Warner Bros.' decision was due to poor audience reception at test screenings and the belief that Batgirl did not meet the standard for a tentpole DCEU release. While discussing the sudden axing of Batgirl, fans questioned the decision not to have the film premiere of HBO Max instead. A few fans then noted that over several weeks HBO Max has been slowly removing a number of its original films.
Six HBO Max original films have been discreetly removed from the platform by Warner Bros. Variety reported that the films removed from HBO Max are The Witches, Moonshot, Superintelligence, An American Pickle, Charm City Kings, and Locked Down. These movies featured the likes of Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Melissa McCarthy, and Seth Rogen, all of whom typically attract audiences from their name recognition alone. Further, the sci-fi rom-com Moonshot, starring Cole Sprouse and Lana Condor, was pulled from HBO Max less than three months after it premiered on March 31, 2022. This was a surprising turn for a film that otherwise seemed specifically crafted to attract a younger audience to the streaming platform.
Check out Variety's take below:
It is worth noting that HBO Max is not the only streaming platform to regularly cycle its content. This is a common practice by streaming sites to keep their catalog fresh and enticing to new customers. However, other platforms typically make an official announcement detailing the content that is up for removal, allowing audiences a final opportunity to watch. HBO Max did not do that here, in fact, they did it so quietly that fans did not notice until the discussion around Batgirl emerged. This is also a particularly unusual move because while other platforms cycle their licensed content, Warner Bros. removed Max Originals for which they hold exclusive streaming rights.
These HBO Max exclusive films are still available to purchase or rent through video-on-demand services, but it seems unlikely they will return to the streaming platform. Some have speculated that it must be a financial decision on Warner Bros.' part, since there is otherwise no downside to having a fuller exclusive catalog on the service. Earlier this year, the company merged with Discovery Inc. in an attempt to claim a larger stake in the entertainment market. As a result of the merger, Warner Bros. assumed $43 billion in debt. The company is expected to release its second-quarter earnings for 2022 later this week which may provide some answers to this peculiar turn of events.
---------------------------
I've never seen a Streamer fucking remove their own fucking films ...
This is why I acquire my media and use Plex. Can’t trust any of this streaming shit
HBO Max Is Still Taking Stuff Down Without Warning
This time, they’ve come for Westworld and more Max Originals.
www.vulture.com
HBO Max Has Been Taking Stuff Down Without Warning for Weeks
By Savannah Salazar
Update, Thursday, August 4, 2022: The plot thickens. As rumors swirl surrounding HBO Max’s possible impending merger with Discovery+, many have discovered that the streamer has removed more titles from its library than previously reported. This morning, a tweet from @LanceStLaurent pointed out that not only are Max Original movies being removed, but the HBO original series Vinyl (short-lived, but alas) has also been unceremoniously removed from the streamer. Indiewire reported that a “long list of films and series” will continue to be pulled as Warner Bros. Discovery plans to eventually merge its two streaming services. “The content being targeted for removal tends to be shows and movies that are not performing on the service but have an opportunity for a partial write off,” per that report.
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A Reddit thread from a month ago noticed a handful of HBO Max’s foreign shows like Amsterdam had also been quietly removed. The streamer’s customer-service Twitter account @HBOMaxHelp has corroborated this information. It’s been replying to users asking why certain titles have been removed with versions of this form answer: “As we work to bring together HBO Max and discovery+, we’re making some changes to our services. Part of that process includes the removal of select content.” The earliest tweet we could find goes back to June 28, 2022.
The following shows and films are the removed “select content” from HBO Max’s library:
• Amy
• Amsterdam
• An American Pickle
• Charm City Kings
• Czech It Out
• Final Space
• Full Bloom
• Here and Now
• Locked Down
• Moonshot
• Mrs. Fletcher
• Vinyl
• The Witches (2020)
Also, it should be noted that these HBO shows, such as Mrs. Fletcher and Vinyl, are available on HBO On Demand for cable users, as well as on VOD platforms. If you see any more curious disappearances from HBO Max, please feel free to notify us at streamliner@vulture.com.
Original story follows.
Something strange is going on over at HBO Max. After the news of Warner Bros. Discovery shelving DC’s upcoming straight-to-streaming Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, keen-eyed Reddit users noticed that certain Max Original films had been pulled from the service altogether. Variety confirmed the report, stating that at least six films made and released exclusively on the streaming service were recently pulled from HBO Max without the company mentioning it in its monthly reports of films leaving the service. (While movies coming and going on streaming services is common, quietly removing a streamer’s own original content is not.) The six films in question are the Lana Condor– and Cole Sprouse–starring Moonshot, Robert Zemeckis’s remake of The Witches starring Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer, Seth Rogen’s An American Pickle, Superintelligence with Melissa McCarthy, Doug Liman’s COVID flick Locked Down with Anne Hathaway (what’s Warner Bros’ beef here?! Kidding … maybe) and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and lastly, director Angel Manuel Soto’s Charm City Kings. Meanwhile, LeBron James’s reboot of House Party was scheduled for a July 28 release and now is absent from the calendar entirely. The films, except LeBron’s, are available for purchase or rent on VOD platforms.
While Warner Bros. Discovery has not commented on the situation — we have yet to receive a response of our own — the news comes ahead of the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, August 4. In a June 2022 issue of Buffering, Josef Adalian wrote that while HBO Max has been thriving, and the service is No. 1 on Vulture’s streamer power rankings(!), the second half of the year will be “anything but stable” as new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav continues to lead the company into new ventures, preferably ones that involve making movies for the big screen. Per Buffering, the word is that he feels future “movies on the Made for Max slate should now come in with a budget under $35 million.” Variety did state that the removal of the service’s six Max Originals was an effort to “cut costs” by axing less-popular streaming titles — after publishing a separate report claiming an insider’s reasoning for Batgirl being shelved was “taxes.” Looks like HBO Max’s year of instability starts now.
By Savannah Salazar
Update, Thursday, August 4, 2022: The plot thickens. As rumors swirl surrounding HBO Max’s possible impending merger with Discovery+, many have discovered that the streamer has removed more titles from its library than previously reported. This morning, a tweet from @LanceStLaurent pointed out that not only are Max Original movies being removed, but the HBO original series Vinyl (short-lived, but alas) has also been unceremoniously removed from the streamer. Indiewire reported that a “long list of films and series” will continue to be pulled as Warner Bros. Discovery plans to eventually merge its two streaming services. “The content being targeted for removal tends to be shows and movies that are not performing on the service but have an opportunity for a partial write off,” per that report.
Introducing Into It with Sam Sanders, Vulture’s new culture podcast.
LISTEN NOW
A Reddit thread from a month ago noticed a handful of HBO Max’s foreign shows like Amsterdam had also been quietly removed. The streamer’s customer-service Twitter account @HBOMaxHelp has corroborated this information. It’s been replying to users asking why certain titles have been removed with versions of this form answer: “As we work to bring together HBO Max and discovery+, we’re making some changes to our services. Part of that process includes the removal of select content.” The earliest tweet we could find goes back to June 28, 2022.
The following shows and films are the removed “select content” from HBO Max’s library:
• Amy
• Amsterdam
• An American Pickle
• Charm City Kings
• Czech It Out
• Final Space
• Full Bloom
• Here and Now
• Locked Down
• Moonshot
• Mrs. Fletcher
• Vinyl
• The Witches (2020)
Also, it should be noted that these HBO shows, such as Mrs. Fletcher and Vinyl, are available on HBO On Demand for cable users, as well as on VOD platforms. If you see any more curious disappearances from HBO Max, please feel free to notify us at streamliner@vulture.com.
Original story follows.
Something strange is going on over at HBO Max. After the news of Warner Bros. Discovery shelving DC’s upcoming straight-to-streaming Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, keen-eyed Reddit users noticed that certain Max Original films had been pulled from the service altogether. Variety confirmed the report, stating that at least six films made and released exclusively on the streaming service were recently pulled from HBO Max without the company mentioning it in its monthly reports of films leaving the service. (While movies coming and going on streaming services is common, quietly removing a streamer’s own original content is not.) The six films in question are the Lana Condor– and Cole Sprouse–starring Moonshot, Robert Zemeckis’s remake of The Witches starring Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer, Seth Rogen’s An American Pickle, Superintelligence with Melissa McCarthy, Doug Liman’s COVID flick Locked Down with Anne Hathaway (what’s Warner Bros’ beef here?! Kidding … maybe) and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and lastly, director Angel Manuel Soto’s Charm City Kings. Meanwhile, LeBron James’s reboot of House Party was scheduled for a July 28 release and now is absent from the calendar entirely. The films, except LeBron’s, are available for purchase or rent on VOD platforms.
While Warner Bros. Discovery has not commented on the situation — we have yet to receive a response of our own — the news comes ahead of the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, August 4. In a June 2022 issue of Buffering, Josef Adalian wrote that while HBO Max has been thriving, and the service is No. 1 on Vulture’s streamer power rankings(!), the second half of the year will be “anything but stable” as new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav continues to lead the company into new ventures, preferably ones that involve making movies for the big screen. Per Buffering, the word is that he feels future “movies on the Made for Max slate should now come in with a budget under $35 million.” Variety did state that the removal of the service’s six Max Originals was an effort to “cut costs” by axing less-popular streaming titles — after publishing a separate report claiming an insider’s reasoning for Batgirl being shelved was “taxes.” Looks like HBO Max’s year of instability starts now.
HBO Max Has Been Taking Stuff Down Without Warning for Weeks
By Savannah Salazar
Update, Thursday, August 4, 2022: The plot thickens. As rumors swirl surrounding HBO Max’s possible impending merger with Discovery+, many have discovered that the streamer has removed more titles from its library than previously reported. This morning, a tweet from @LanceStLaurent pointed out that not only are Max Original movies being removed, but the HBO original series Vinyl (short-lived, but alas) has also been unceremoniously removed from the streamer. Indiewire reported that a “long list of films and series” will continue to be pulled as Warner Bros. Discovery plans to eventually merge its two streaming services. “The content being targeted for removal tends to be shows and movies that are not performing on the service but have an opportunity for a partial write off,” per that report.
Introducing Into It with Sam Sanders, Vulture’s new culture podcast.
LISTEN NOW
A Reddit thread from a month ago noticed a handful of HBO Max’s foreign shows like Amsterdam had also been quietly removed. The streamer’s customer-service Twitter account @HBOMaxHelp has corroborated this information. It’s been replying to users asking why certain titles have been removed with versions of this form answer: “As we work to bring together HBO Max and discovery+, we’re making some changes to our services. Part of that process includes the removal of select content.” The earliest tweet we could find goes back to June 28, 2022.
The following shows and films are the removed “select content” from HBO Max’s library:
• Amy
• Amsterdam
• An American Pickle
• Charm City Kings
• Czech It Out
• Final Space
• Full Bloom
• Here and Now
• Locked Down
• Moonshot
• Mrs. Fletcher
• Vinyl
• The Witches (2020)
Also, it should be noted that these HBO shows, such as Mrs. Fletcher and Vinyl, are available on HBO On Demand for cable users, as well as on VOD platforms. If you see any more curious disappearances from HBO Max, please feel free to notify us at streamliner@vulture.com.
Original story follows.
Something strange is going on over at HBO Max. After the news of Warner Bros. Discovery shelving DC’s upcoming straight-to-streaming Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, keen-eyed Reddit users noticed that certain Max Original films had been pulled from the service altogether. Variety confirmed the report, stating that at least six films made and released exclusively on the streaming service were recently pulled from HBO Max without the company mentioning it in its monthly reports of films leaving the service. (While movies coming and going on streaming services is common, quietly removing a streamer’s own original content is not.) The six films in question are the Lana Condor– and Cole Sprouse–starring Moonshot, Robert Zemeckis’s remake of The Witches starring Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer, Seth Rogen’s An American Pickle, Superintelligence with Melissa McCarthy, Doug Liman’s COVID flick Locked Down with Anne Hathaway (what’s Warner Bros’ beef here?! Kidding … maybe) and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and lastly, director Angel Manuel Soto’s Charm City Kings. Meanwhile, LeBron James’s reboot of House Party was scheduled for a July 28 release and now is absent from the calendar entirely. The films, except LeBron’s, are available for purchase or rent on VOD platforms.
While Warner Bros. Discovery has not commented on the situation — we have yet to receive a response of our own — the news comes ahead of the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, August 4. In a June 2022 issue of Buffering, Josef Adalian wrote that while HBO Max has been thriving, and the service is No. 1 on Vulture’s streamer power rankings(!), the second half of the year will be “anything but stable” as new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav continues to lead the company into new ventures, preferably ones that involve making movies for the big screen. Per Buffering, the word is that he feels future “movies on the Made for Max slate should now come in with a budget under $35 million.” Variety did state that the removal of the service’s six Max Originals was an effort to “cut costs” by axing less-popular streaming titles — after publishing a separate report claiming an insider’s reasoning for Batgirl being shelved was “taxes.” Looks like HBO Max’s year of instability starts now.
WTF IS GOING ON OVER THERE?
@ViCiouS
Joss Whedon to Direct a Standalone Batgirl Movie
Batgirl is coming to DC’s cinematic universe, and she’s got one hell of a name directing her: Joss Whedon himself. Confirmed by Variety today, Whedon is closing in on a deal to write, direct, and produce Barbara Gordon’s entry into DC’s cinematic universe. There’s no other information on the...
www.bgol.us
HBO Max's death may be exaggerated — Discovery Plus merger coming [Update]
Reading the HBO Max + Discovery Plus tea leaves
HBO Max's death may be exaggerated — Discovery Plus merger coming [Update]
Reading the HBO Max + Discovery Plus tea leaveswww.tomsguide.com
But I thought it was more like a MERGER?
And then they killed CNN+ and then on and on and on...
the wonder twins the death of Snyderverse announcement
all of JJ Abrams huge new deal
they cancelling live action but at first it was supposed to be sit com type stuff but now its movies and potentially SERIES?
Yo WTF?
Why HBO Max Reportedly Will Remove Even More Movies & TV Shows
What's behind the sudden purge?
screenrant.com
Glad to see a shake up at WB and DC. They've been fucking up classic properties for years trying to catch up with the MCU(without taking the hears to build it and having an actual plan.) Glad to finally rid the dceu of the Snyder stink.
Fingers crossed Sony is next.
Fingers crossed Sony is next.
Everything I've read about this since the merger was announced has had me concerned.
It seems like the news is getting worse.
I have a bad feeling they're going to totally fuck up HBOMax after finally getting it right and running good in the last year or so.
It seems like the news is getting worse.
I have a bad feeling they're going to totally fuck up HBOMax after finally getting it right and running good in the last year or so.
Yeah I’m confused by the timing because I honestly enjoy it. You could argue it’s the best streaming app out and a year ago I wouldn’t have said that.
They Must’ve fucked up the Budget somewhere….
House Party remake...?
Yeah this was in the planning for a long time
He got a great director big cast search soundtrack and secret tie in with kid and play.
I actually thought it would have worked.
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