Melissa McCarthy's New Movie To Skip Theaters, Premiere On HBO Max

I guess we now know why we haven't heard anything about Warner Bros. and New Line's Superintelligence. The PG (!) rated comedy, helmed by Ben Falcone and starring Melissa McCarthy, has been slotted for a Christmas theatrical release for a while, but we haven't seen so much as a poster. Well, hot on the heels of Warner Media announcing that HBO Max would get exclusive streaming rights to 21 Studio Ghibli movies, which is worth its weight in gold in terms of positive media coverage over the next few days, they now have their first high-profile straight-to-streaming movie.

Yes, for better or worse, Melissa McCarthy's Superintelligence, co-starring Bobby Cannavale, Brian Tyree Henry, Jean Smart and James Corden,will debut not in theaters but on HBO Max as a launch title when the streaming service arrives in the Spring of 2020.

The film (now quoting the press release) "tells the story of Carol Peters (McCarthy), to whom nothing extraordinary ever happens. But when she starts getting snarky backtalk from her TV, phone and microwave, she thinks she's being punked. Or losing her mind. In fact, the world's first superintelligence has selected her for observation, taking over her life...with a bigger, more ominous plan to take over everything. Now Carol is humanity's last chance before this artificial intelligence-with-an-attitude decides to pull the plug."

McCarthy's star vehicles, like almost every other actor's star vehicles, have comparatively struggled in the last couple of years as audiences have become less and less likely to show up for the face on the poster. The era of a movie like Identity Thief opening with $34 million just based on the pitch and the presence of McCarthy in a leading role is essentially over.

That said, not unlike Adam Sandler's Netflix deal, this could be both HBO Max bringing a big fish to a smaller pond in what could be an opportunity to let McCarthy and Falcone offer more of their "one for me" comedies without worrying if they are going to break box office records. It arguably marks an end of an era, as even among lower-budget comedy stars I'd argue that Kevin Hart is the last old-school standby in terms of "butts in the seats."

At this point, intended-for-theatrical offerings of this nature count as more of an event on HBO Max than they would have in theaters. But, hey, if Adam Sandler can do his Netflix comedies and still find time for movies like Uncut Gems (review later, but it's the best movie Adam Sandler has ever made), then I won't be too grumpy about this. I hope Superintelligence is at least as good as the last big Warner Bros. film that got tossed to streaming, Andy Serkis' Mowgli.

As always, we'll see, but this is why I am always begging you to see the movies that you want to see in theaters (like Can You Ever Forgive Me? and The Kitchen) when those films are actually in theaters.