Nah, this will be a short term thing until it's safe to walk around America.
Right now there are 38 million HBO Max subscribers in America. That's about 570 million a month they are making? If Covid19 wasn't around, Warner could plop Wonder Women 84 in cinemas and easily make another 400-500 million in America. HBO Max would need another 20 million subscribers to cover that extra revenue. But here is the thing, even if Warner don't release their theatrical films on HBO Max, they would still gather those extra subscribers over time.
And let's say millions of people subbed to HBO Max for a month just to watch a theatrical film, Warner would still make less money in this manner than if they released theatrically.
On the radio news they estimated that it would take a year or more in Australia to have everyone vaccinated for Covid19, so sometime in 2022 everyone will be vaccinated. I'd imagine it would take even longer to have everyone vaccinated in America. Warner are just making smart business decisions for the now.
I think the damage is done. With the new administration, things will only get stricter.
But like I said even without this whole Covid fiasco, it was inevitable. The more leaps in home thl this.eater and information/internet technology and the more people are connected, the less people will want to visit a theater and just enjoy it in the comfort of their own home.
If anything, this pandemic will condition people more to it but again it was inevitable in a decade or two.
It's possible you'll still have theaters for certain nostalgic reasons or events. Maybe new theater technology, like those scarce 4D theaters which function like rides while watching a movie, will entice people with big blockbusters like Star Wars, but overall I believe it's a dying pastime especially after all this.