Gal Gadot Received $10 Million In Compensation For The HBO Max Move
By George Robbins
This past week has been an interesting one for the Warner Bros. studio as they have made announcements that no one would have ever really expected them to make. Over the weekend, they made the announcement that they would be releasing their new movies through the next year on both HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously. This announcement has been met with mixed reactions from both fans and those on the production team alike. When they made the announcement that they would be making this release plan a reality, they ruffled feathers with people who were insistent that they should be trying to help movie theaters recover. Instead of helping theaters it would appear to most that they are only really helping themselves in this scenario as opposed to trying to help theaters get back on track.
To be a little fair, Warner took a hit over this past summer and they have been trying to figure out the proper way of going about things these past few months. Obviously they knew that something needed to change or else they would not be able to keep up with the industry which has been on a steady decline since the pandemic began. Since the start of the pandemic, Warner has not been the only studio to have actually released a film as Universal has also put some work into getting a couple of films released. They have since tried figuring out how they too would continue going about their upcoming releases and it seems like they have chosen a release format that would suit both them, and the theaters. This would lead to what is now happening with Warner as it helped give them a push in the direction they are now headed in.
Universal was actually the first studio to announce that they wanted to release their films on both a digital platform as well as in theaters at the same time. The issue was that they made this announcement at the start of the pandemic when theaters thought they actually had a choice as to what would happen with movie releases. After a threat was issued that AMC would no longer show any more Universal films and Universal responded they went radio silent on the matter for months. When enough time had passed, AMC announced the deal that they made with Universal which would allow them to release films digitally just 17 days after release. This was something that was completely unheard of and under normal circumstances, it would never happen, but at this point theaters would only end up being hurt more if they didn’t take the deal.
This announcement was met with the announcement not much later that they would also be offering this deal to every other studio as well and needless to say it was a good deal for studios. A shorter theatrical run could end up generating more revenue for them and a digital release would ensure that they would end up getting more profits overall. Theaters take a portion of what is earned on each ticket, so studios really need to make a lot in order for them to make up what is lost when theaters take their cut. In being able to release their films early on digital, they can mitigate some of their losses and cash in on the money to be made by people not wanting to go out to theaters. All people would have to do is wait a couple of extra weeks and they will be able to go and purchase the film digitally without ever having to go see it in theaters.
Warner Bros. took this a step further by announcing that they were going to be essentially going with Universal’s original plan for their movie releases for the end of this year and all of next year. Of course, this has people like Christopher Nolan annoyed because it detracts importance from theaters and makes it harder for them to get income. It is making everyone else unhappy because they usually make their money off of a portion of the ticket sales as well so they would effectively lose out on a lot of money when people do not go to theaters to see the films. There are 17 films releasing this upcoming year and most of the people involved with them have said that they had not been compensated for the switch-up and new release format. Gal Gadot has said that she got over $10 million due to ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ going to HBO Max while a majority of other actors and directors have not received anything yet as they were blindsided by the decision and had no time to negotiate. It is still up for debate how this will be handled with all other directors and cast, but if it doesn’t go their way, Warner may have a major legal battle on their hands.