For the entirety of 2021, WarnerMedia released all of their movies both in theaters and streaming on HBO Max on the same day, meaning that if you woke up on Friday and wanted to watch The Matrix Resurrections at home and didn’t want to go to a theater you could. That practice stopped in 2022 however and the studio’s first major release of the year, The Batman, is their first major theatrical exclusive since Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in August of 2020. With all that in mind that means The Batman is not currently streaming on HBO Max, but there is a ticking clock of when it will be available, and it’s sooner than you think.
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar previously confirmed that starting in 2022 there will be a 45-day theatrical exclusive window for their releases, including The Batman. Should the math hold up and no delays occur, The Batman will then arrive on HBO Max for streaming on April 19, exactly 46 days after the Matt Reeves reboot’s March 4 release in theaters. “Think about when movies would show up on HBO, which is eight to nine months after theatrical premiere. The Batman is going to show up on day 46 on HBO Max,” Kilar said in an interview with Vox’s Recode. “That is a huge change from where things were in 2018, 2017, 2016.”
Kilar added, “I feel really, really good knowing that The Batman, and Black Adam, and The Flash, and Elvis, and a whole host of other movies, are literally going to be showing up on day 46 on HBO Max in a variety of territories all over the world. That is a very, very big change that I don’t think people appreciate, and I feel really good about it.”
Despite only playing in theaters it seems like fans are already heading to theaters in droves to see the new film. The film’s international box office is already picking up steam with tracking reports putting the new film as potentially becoming the biggest Batman movie ever.
The Batman is already playing in theaters now and marks the first of four different versions of the caped crusader that will appear on the big screen for the entirety of 2022, the most Batmen ever. This time next year all of those movies will be streaming on HBO Max as well, which is already home to a host of Bat-movies including Tim Burton’s, Christopher Nolan’s, and more