Warner Bros.’ decision to send the entire 2021 slate of movies to HBO Max the same day they hit theaters proved to be hugely controversial within the industry, and many of the studio’s contracted talents openly blasted the move, but with each passing month, it’s looking more and more like it was a smart call.
Godzilla vs. Kong not only decimated every major pandemic-era record at the box office with an opening five-day haul of over $48 million, but it’s also led to a huge spike in subscriber numbers for the streaming service. According to the latest data, the platform has enjoyed one of its strongest ever weeks in terms of new customers in the seven days since the newest chapter in the MonsterVerse was added to the library.
It’s yet another mark in the win column for HBO Max, after Wonder Woman 1984 scored the biggest streaming launch of last year, and there’s also this little thing called Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which has been dominating the headlines for the last three weeks. Not only that, but Godzilla vs. Kong became the fourth of WB’s hybrid releases to top the domestic box office, with awards season contender Judas and the Black Messiah the only one so far that hasn’t nabbed the number one spot.
The three highest domestic opening weekends of the last year belong to Godzilla vs. Kong, Wonder Woman 1984 and Tom & Jerry, the record for an R-rated title is with The Little Things, while Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is still the most commercially successful Hollywood blockbuster of the Coronavirus pandemic, although Adam Wingard’s crossover is set to dislodge it by the end of the week. The past 12 months have been a disaster for the industry at large, but Warner Bros. and HBO Max have certainly been making the best of a bad situation.