has had a specialty division for smaller movies. Netflix has filled its service with romantic comedies such as “Always Be My Maybe,” animated films such as “Klaus” and Oscar candidates including “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story.” Amazon Prime has also made film a focus, with Sundance Film Festival pickups such as “Brittany Runs a Marathon.” Netflix initially built its subscriber base through original TV programming with shows such as “House of Cards.” But over time, the company and other streamers have come to increasingly rely on movies they either produce or acquire. Warner Max’s creation comes as streaming services are growing hungrier for film content to draw and retain subscribers. Cinemas have generally balked at screening movies that don’t follow a traditional release pattern, in which films generally aren’t available for home viewing until 90 days after their theatrical debuts. However, the intention is to make movies for the streaming platform. has not ruled out the possibility that some Warner Max movies will be released in at least some theaters, people familiar with the matter said. and its New Line Cinema unit will continue to make mid-budget movies for theatrical distribution, while Warner Max will create movies for audiences that would be best reached through the streaming service. Whether or not a movie has enough of a draw to justify a full theatrical release (and the pricey accompanying marketing campaign) is now a routine question for studio executives. released a string of mid-tier films that floundered at the box office, including “The Kitchen” (starring Melissa McCarthy), “The Goldfinch” (based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel) and “Motherless Brooklyn” (starring and directed by Edward Norton).įor studios, movies with massive budgets are ironically now considered safer bets because they have the spectacle and brand-awareness to make people want to see them on a big screen as soon as they’re released.

The market for those movies, however, has become increasingly challenging.

Warner Bros., run by former BBC executive Ann Sarnoff, has long prided itself on its ability to make not only big-budget franchise films, but also the comedies and smaller dramas that once kept multiplexes humming.

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