Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: atomic monster, gary dauberman, james wan, Salem's Lot, Warner Bros

Salem's Lot Remake Seems To Be Skipping Theaters For Max

Looks like Warner's may be sending the remake of Stephen King's Salem's Lot to Max instead of theaters after sitting on it for a year.

Published Wed, 01 Nov 2023 11:23:07 -0500

by Jeremy Konrad

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Article Summary

Warner Bros. is rumored to send the remake of Stephen King's Salem's Lot directly to the streaming platform, Max.
The film has been finished for more than a year and postponed multiple times due to strikes.
The shift to a streaming-exclusive release may not be due to the film's quality but a need for more content on Max.
The decision raises questions as the genre and name recognition of Salem's Lot could potentially make it a hit in theaters.

Salem's Lot was completed forever ago and has been sitting on a shelf for well over a year since being yanked off the release schedule in 2022 and again in the spring of this year. Not much of anything has been known about what Warner Bros. Discovery would do with the Stephen King adaptation directed by Gary Dauberman until now. A Variety article says that the film is heading to Max and now skipping theaters altogether. The article stresses the source of the rumor that it has nothing to do with the film's quality but instead the need for more content for the streaming service. The film stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbaek, Alfre Woodard, and William Sadler.

Salem's Lot Remake Seems To Be Skipping Theaters For Max — Salem's Lot Still from the 1979 miniseries from Warner Bros. Television.

Salem's Lot Could Still Make Money In Theaters

In Stephen King's Salem's Lot, "an author returns to his hometown to write about an abandoned mansion in the small town. As he discovers the home has been bought by a mysterious man from Europe, the man also realizes that townspeople are slowly being turned into vampires. The writer bands together with a ragtag group to stop the spread of vampires, with the final confrontation happening in the house with the mysterious man." It is widely regarded as one of King's best novels, and fans have been hoping for a theatrical remake for quite some time. King himself has always said that he thinks that the novel is ripe for a remake, and what better time than now, with Hollywood being enamored with the writer's works all over again?

And what a dumb move if this happens by Warner's. After two prolonged strikes, many films have been delayed already or may be heading that way, clearing the way for a studio like Warner's with a finished film in a genre that is proven to make money, with an IP play with tons of name recognition. How do you NOT release that in theaters and clean up? Then, it becomes a Max streaming exclusive, just like how they handled The Nun 2 this fall. It is not rocket science.

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