No disrespect to my unofficial college roommate Max, but the popular streaming service formally known as HBO Him, and then just Him—or really Me, from his purview—is reverting back to what many, including myself, believe it should have remained all along.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced at its upfronts on Tuesday, May 14th, that Max would rebrand to HBO Max—the same name it forfeited just two short years ago.
Much like a populace incapable of calibrating their minds to accept “X” as the new name of the social media platform formerly entitled Twitter, HBO Max has never really left us. After all, its flagship content happens to be HBO’s most prestigious possessions in its unending catalogue of categorical greatness: “The Sopranos,” “Game of Thrones,” “Succession,” “The Last of Us”—you name it, they’ve got it… usually.
WBD, the parent company of HBO Max-once-more, revealed in the same breath that it turned around its profitability by almost $3 billion in just two years. They are scaling globally with 22 million subscribers added over the past year, and predict having over 150 million total by the end of 2026.
“Bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media” can only further accelerate that growth in the years ahead, WBD President and CEO David Zaslav believes.
And we agree with that notion as well, while also neither forgiving nor forgetting the mess that was the cancelled release of “Coyote v. Acme” starring Will Forte—that is, of course, until Ketchup Entertainment came in like Billy Madison in the climax of his eponymous biopic and what-can-I-say saved the day.
I consider this a most victorious walk-back; a transparent admission that some corporate suits naturally paid to make the big picture swings thought just a tad too hard at a time when they didn’t have to think at all. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” comes to mind.
“HBO Max” made total sense as a branding upgrade from “HBO Go” when WBD first positioned HBO as this so-called evil empirical superteam every tier-one free agent wanted to join forces with as a streaming partner.
However, the same subscribers who lauded this maneuver grew censorious when more change came down the pipe the very next moment. Before proven wrong, dropping “HBO” for those who don’t closely follow the entertainment trades, coupled with the concurrent licensing of HBO content to older shows like “Sex and the City,” "Entourage," and “Ballers," created an acute fear that all HBO content would soon migrate elsewhere.
On the contrary, viewers are intelligent enough to distinguish the difference between programming that is original to the HBO slate still catchable live on TV—remember cable?—and the additional, non-HBO content its exponentially growing power has afforded them the right to pick up along the way.
We do that with Paramount Plus just fine, and as much as we complain at the water cooler or holiday dinner table, take these constant mergers and acquisitions in stride; so long as cult classics stunted from becoming such–like Showtime’sdark Jim Carrey comedy “Kidding” and Nathan Fielder’s what--did-I-just-watch “The Curse”—aren’t lost in the fray.
HBO Max has maxed out even more so by matching the energy of its right-minded consumer base who have proven relentless. This is not a bit commitment, rather pure sincerity.
May they continue to max out by doing the opposite of mass-poaching accessibility of niche-appreciation hubs like“Turner Classic Movies” and animated superhero content. We need them, WBD.
They’re not our only hope; but if something like “Anora” is going to be streamable on Disney Plus—yes, that “Anora”—then who’s to say WBD can’t further allow HBO Max to separate themselves as the iron-most giant in the streaming wars?
Surely, HBO Max could topple over their competitors as that proverbial go-to that puts its money where its reputational word of mouth lives by essentially having everything. Or at the very least, by being the streamer that comes closest to earning said designation.