Maybe the movie theater is just… better?

In 2021, then-CEO of WarnerMedia, Jason Kilar, unveiled a plan to simultaneously release the studio’s entire slate of films in theaters and HBO Max.

Not surprisingly, movie theater owners didn’t… love that. Which is why the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery pulled out all the stops to impress the audience of movie theater execs at this year’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

And on Tuesday at 8:30 am PT, impress, it did. Current CEO David Zaslav told the CinemaCon audience that, “We do not believe in direct-to-streaming movies,” reversing the decision of his predecessor.

The move, Zaslav explained, was simple:

• It makes financial sense – films in theaters perform better than those that go directly to streaming.
• Zaslav also stressed that WBD was in the storytelling business: “WBD is not in the retail business, not in cable, not broadband, not phone. We are just storytellers.”

And judging by the studio’s star-studded preview of its upcoming slate, WBD has got some great stories to tell. Oprah made a surprise appearance Tuesday to preview the upcoming musical film version of The Color Purple (opens wide on December 25th), Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling also came out in bright pink to show new footage from Barbie (July 21), and DC Studios teased footage from The Flash (June 16th), Blue Beetle (August 18th), and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (December 20th).

🔎 Zoom out: WBD isn’t the only studio recommitting to movie theater releases. Both Apple and Amazon have recently committed $1 billion/year towards producing and distributing films in theaters.