Streaming services like HBO Max have thrown filmmakers ‘under the bus,’ says Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg, the legendary filmmaker, has some thoughts on streaming services. In an interview with the New York Times, the filmmaker stated that streaming services such as HBO Max have ‘thrown filmmakers under the bus’ by not releasing their projects in theatres and instead releasing them directly on their platform.

This is in reference to Warner Bros.’ decision to simultaneously release all of its 2021 films on HBO Max and in theatres.

‘The pandemic created an opportunity for streaming platforms to raise their subscriptions to record-breaking levels and also throw some of my best filmmaker friends under the bus as their movies were unceremoniously not given theatrical releases. They were paid off and the films were suddenly relegated to, in this case, HBO Max. The case I’m talking about. And then everything started to change,’ he stated.

Spielberg admits that the pandemic changed how audiences watched movies, but he still prefers theatrical releases.

‘The Fabelmans,’ the filmmaker’s most recent directorial project, opens exclusively in selected movie theatres on November 11 before a worldwide release on November 23.