Steven Spielberg has spoken out against streaming services, saying that the decision to forgo theatrical releases and "relegate" movies to streamers is throwing filmmakers under the bus.
"The pandemic created an opportunity for streaming platforms to raise their subscriptions to record-breaking levels and also throw some of my best filmmaker friends under the bus as their movies were unceremoniously not given theatrical releases," Spielberg told the New York Times. "They were paid-off and the films were suddenly relegated to, in this case, HBO Max. The case I’m talking about. And then everything started to change."
In 2021, Warner Bros. made the decision to release all their movies simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in the US due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant that blockbusters like Dune, The Suicide Squad, and Matrix Resurrections could all be watched at home straight away with no cinema trip necessary, even when theaters had reopened to the public.
However, the director seems hopeful about the future of cinema: "I found it encouraging that Elvis broke $100 million at the domestic box office. A lot of older people went to see that film, and that gave me hope that people were starting to come back to the movies as the pandemic becomes an endemic. I think movies are going to come back. I really do."
Spielberg's next movie is The Fabelmans, a semi-autobiographical film based on his childhood in Arizona. It stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, and Seth Rogen. The Fabelmans starts its limited US theatrical release on November 11, before hitting screens nationwide on November 23. The movie arrives in the UK on January 27, 2023. While we wait, check out our guide to the rest of the best upcoming movies on the horizon.
