Wonder Woman Goes Online: A New Era for Warner Bros.?

In the summer of 2021, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (Warner) announced it would release big-budget films on its online streaming platform, HBO Max, at the same time as in theatres—a radical departure from the industry norm of a 90-day window between a movie’s release to theatres and streaming services. Almost a year earlier, when COVID-19 lockdowns had shuttered movie theatres across the United States, Warner had released “Wonder Woman 1984” on HBO Max and in theatres at the same time. But in the summer of 2021, amid rising vaccination rates and easing restrictions, US box-office collections rose to their highest levels since the start of the pandemic. Now, in August 2021, Ann Sarnoff, the chief executive officer at Warner, saw that the rapid growth of the streaming market was showing signs of slowing. Should Warner return to the pre-pandemic, theatre-first release mode? Should the company adopt a tiered pricing model for HBO Max or sell distribution rights to third-party subscription platforms such as Netflix? Or could Sarnoff unveil an innovative channel strategy for future launches?

The case is designed for use in undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in Marketing. The case can be taught in the foundation course of Marketing, with the purpose of explaining to students the different ways companies deliver value to consumers. The case is also useful for sales and distribution management students, as the focus is on multichannel marketing. After working through the case and assignment questions, the students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Understand how companies deliver value through their distribution channels.</li><li>Understand the evolution and prevalence of channels available to the movie industry.</li><li>Analyze the distribution channels available to a major movie production company.</li><li>Evaluate the channel strategies for companies that practise multichannel marketing.</li><li>Formulate channel strategies to deal with conflicts arising from multichannel marketing.</li></ul>

• multichannel, deliver value, OTT, movies