Steven Spielberg not fond of OTTs: They have thrown my filmmaker friends 'under the bus'

Ace filmmaker Steven Spielberg has a thing or two to say about streaming platforms. In an interview with the NYT, the filmmaker said that streaming services like HBO Max have thrown filmmakers “under the bus” by not putting their projects up in theatres and directly releasing on their platform.

This is in reference to Warner Bros’ decision to release all of its 2021 films simultaneously on HBO Max and theatres. Expressing his dislike for this, Steven Spielberg said, “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.”

“I think older audiences were relieved that they didn’t have to step on sticky popcorn,” Spielberg continued. “But I really believe those same older audiences, once they got into the theater, the magic of being in a social situation with a bunch of strangers is a tonic… it’s up to the movies to be good enough to get all the audiences to say that to each other when the lights come back up.”

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Spielberg admits that the pandemic brought a few changes in how the audience watches cinema but he still prefers a theatrical release. The filmmaker's last directorial project ‘The Fabelmans’ opens exclusively in select movie theatres on November 11 before getting worldwide release on November 23.