You could argue that there are few filmmakers that owe so much of their career to the “theatrical experience” than M. Night Shyamalan. Can you imagine what might have happened to a film like “The Sixth Sense” if the twist ending wasn’t a theatrical exclusive and could be viewed and meme’d all over social media once it was released on a streaming service? So much of the surprise of “The Sixth Sense” lies in the way it was presented, in a dark theater with a group of unsuspecting audience members. Thus, it makes complete sense why the filmmaker would be against the recent Warner Bros. decision to release the studio’s 2021 film slate directly on HBO Max.
Speaking to Fandom, Shyamalan was asked about the development, which sees more than a dozen massive films being released day-and-date in both theaters and HBO Max. We’ve already seen how that affected “Wonder Woman 1984,” and we have yet to find out what might happen to films like “Dune” or “The Suicide Squad.” And Shyamalan isn’t just upset over the decision but also how WB treated its filmmakers.
“You only have to guess what my reaction is to that,” Shyamalan said. “I don’t support it at all. At all. And especially without talking to the filmmakers. Ridiculous. [It’s] obviously corporate-driven and I feel bad for all my colleagues that found out that way and are dealing with it now.”
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He continued, “That’s not the answer. That’s certainly not the answer, and I very much hope we will all be going back to the theaters soonish. Three months, four months, five months, whatever it is. And that both can co-exist; that we have high-end entertainment at home and we have high-end entertainment when we want to go out. There’s no need to cannibalize one for the other.”
Clearly, Shyamalan is no fan of the HBO Max/WB decision. And if he wasn’t already signed to a deal with Universal, we would say that it’s likely he won’t work with Warner Bros. anytime soon. But for a filmmaker like Shyamalan, who has surprised theatrical audiences for two decades now, it’s clear he has hope that cinemas can rebound and that we’ll all be shocked at his twist endings on the big screen soon enough.
