As It Releases A Movie Straight To Digital, Warner Tries To Reassure Movie Theaters

With movie theaters around the country remaining closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some movie studios have been releasing movies to on-demand instead of pushing back release dates, like Universal did with Trolls: World Tour. However, in the midst of this, Universal received backlash from Regal Cinemas and AMC. Now, WarnerMedia is the latest to go straight to on-demand with Scoob on May 15. However, the company is already attempting to calm the raging waters.

During a recent virtual webcast (via The Hollywood Reporter), John Stephens, CFO of WarnerMedia parent company AT&T, said that they will "continue to work with theater owners." This comes days before the animated movie Scoob hits VOD.

"Our launch of Scoob took a different path than normal because of the virus, and we'll learn from that," Stephens said. "We understand the importance of ... big theatrical releases. We are interested in new ideas, whatever is best for the consumer, but we will continue to work with our partners."

With no date set for theaters around the country to reopen, many movies have had their release dates pushed towards the end of the year or well into 2021. Back in April, Trolls: World Tour skipped theaters and was released on VOD by Universal Pictures. The move ended up making more profit for the movie studio as a digital release than it would if it was released in the theaters.

"The results for Trolls World Tour have exceeded our expectations and demonstrated the viability of PVOD," NBCUniveral CEO Jeff Shell said back in April. "As soon as theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats."

Because of Shell's statements, Universal responded by refusing to play any movies from the studio in the future. Shell reiterated the fact that Universal movies will not all be digital releases, and the studio still work with theaters. Regal Cinemas owner Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger chimed in, echoing AMC's statements.

Regardless of Stephens' comments about working with theaters in the future, there will likely be blowback for going straight to on-demand for Scoob. AMC's Adam Aron has been very vocal about this situation, which some find a bit preposterous.