DC Comics Movies Will Leave HBO Max On A Regular Basis (Before Eventually Returning)
HBO Max just launched at the end of May, but some of the movies in the streaming service's library are already disappearing. Many of them are going away because they're movies brought over from HBO that don't live at the cable network forever, but when it comes to the library of live-action DC Comics movies, such as Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad, those will be rotated every now and then, leaving the service occasionally and coming back later.
Fans became concerned about HBO Max losing a bunch of live-action DC Comics movies recently when it was noticed that nearly a dozen movies were leaving the service on July 1, as shown clearly through HBO Max itself. Here are the movies that will no longer be available to stream through HBO Max next month:
HBO Max released a statement to ComicBook.com, who inquired about the availability of these movies in the streaming library in the future. A spokesperson for HBO Max said:
"We have a collection of DC films that will rotate on the platform. We have a new batch coming in July and then another batch coming in August."
The most likely reason for this is pre-existing deals with other services that must be honored, even as WarnerMedia has its own streaming home now. And maybe Warners' own DC Universe streaming service has something to do with it – if they rotate the movies between their streaming services, they give subscribers a reason to stick with both services instead of canceling one or the other. We do not know for sure, as HBO Max has not supplied additional details.
Besides the live-action DC Comics movies, there's also a small collection of animated DC Comics movies on HBO Max, such as Batman: The Killing Joke and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, but those don't appear to be going anywhere. The library of animated movies isn't nearly as big as the one available at DC Universe, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those movies start rotating as well.
The good news is that HBO Max still has Aquaman, Shazam!, Joker, Green Lantern, and the old Supergirl movie still available to stream. However, all of those except Supergirl are available through HBO, so whenever those movies leave the cable network, it's possible that they won't be available on HBO Max anymore either.
This shouldn't be surprising since Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and pretty much every streaming service rotate their library of titles. However, it's a little odd since one would think that WarnerMedia would want to hold onto the DC Comics library for a bit longer after launch, especially with Zack Snyder's Justice League coming to the library next year. After all, Disney+ isn't rotating the Marvel Cinematic Universe collection each month. But maybe it makes more business sense for WarnerMedia right now. And Hollywood studios likely need all the money they can get right now.