Long-delayed ‘Salem’s Lot movie might get dumped on Max, but supposedly not because it's bad
The movie was supposed to be in theaters last summer, and now it might not be in theaters at all
Director Gary Dauberman’s new feature film adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic vampire book ‘Salems Lot has been through a lot already: In July of 2022, it was delayed from September of that year to April of this year (ostensibly because of “COVID-related delays in the post-production realm”), and then shortly after that it was removed from Warner Bros.’ calendar entirely—explaining why you might not remember seeing it back in April. That means it’s been sitting on a shelf for at least a whole extra year, and that’s after being shot all the way back in 2021.
And now there’s a curious new development in the ‘Salem’s Lot saga, with Variety suggesting that it might be losing its theatrical release date altogether in favor of Warner Bros. Discovery dumping it straight to Max instead. That hasn’t been confirmed by anyone, but a “source with knowledge of the back-and-forth” told Variety that this has nothing to do with “the film’s quality,” but that WBD is simply desperate for new things to put on Max because of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
That seems like an exceedingly difficult concept for WBD to try and sell to anyone, considering how weird the company has been about putting things on Max over the years, but on the other hand, something that doesn’t seem to make any sense is exactly what WBD tends to do in any given situation. This is (sort of) the same company that released all of its 2021 movies on streaming, only to eventually denounce that plan after people got mad about it. This is also the same company that decided it would rather throw Batgirl in the garbage rather than release it on Max. So does WBD need things to put on Max? Or does it not want to put things on Max? And wouldn’t the strikes have impacted theatrical releases more than streaming, since Max has a big library of older shows and movies that are already available? Oh right, WBD keeps deleting that stuff.
So, again, does Warner Bros. Discovery want stuff on Max, or does it not want stuff on Max?