Even before the Covid, Wonder Woman 1984 had been delayed. It was due out in December 2019, then in November of the same year, before being pushed back to the summer of 2020. In the fall of 2020, with widespread vaccinations months away, it was decided that the film could not sit on it. the shelf longer. Warner Bros. released the film in theaters and on its new HBO Max streaming service at the same time, a prelude to the company’s plan to strengthen the site by releasing all of its 2021 films day by day in theaters and at home.

The film grossed $ 166 million worldwide, not nothing in a Covid world. It’s still a small fraction of the first $ 822 million Wonder woman done in theaters. And although director Patty Jenkins supported the release at the time, she has now admitted the experience was “heartbreaking.”

At a CinemaCon event this week (via Deadline), Jenkins appealed the decision to release Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max and theaters simultaneously “the best choice of a bunch of bad choices right now” as well as a “heartbreaking experience.”

She added …

This was detrimental to the movie … I don’t think it plays the same way on streaming, ever … I’m not a day-and-date fan and hope to avoid it forever. I make films for the big screen experience.

She also said that while she would gladly do a TV show for Netflix, she would not make a movie for herself or for any streaming service.

Jenkins ‘comments are far from the only negatives to come out of Warner Bros.’ HBO Max Experience. When they first announced the decision to push all of their 2021 films to streaming and theaters simultaneously, Christopher Nolan – who had made Principle with Warner Bros. a few months earlier – publicly called HBO Max “the worst streaming service”. Denis Villeneuve, including Dune is on the list of Warners to debut on HBO Max this year, an angry op-ed wrote in Variety claiming that Warners’ parent company AT&T had “hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in movie history.”

Unfortunately, with the increase in Covid cases around the world, it appears that outputs like Wonder Woman 1984‘sand DuneIt’s only going to become more common, not less. During this time, Wonder Woman 1984 is still streaming on HBO Max. Dune debuts there on October 22. Warner Bros. has said it will revert to a more traditional release schedule for its blockbusters in 2022. We’ll see.