Potiki

I remember it at 7% when numbers were first posted but didn't follow it minute by minute as was busy reading the report so maybe missed it dipping into double digit territory. Parks were up slightly QoQ and way up YoY in terms of revenue, down a bit QoQ in terms of operating income but up YoY, the strong US dollar and having to shut WDW for a bit due to the hurricane hampered business, parks is still looking real good though above FY2019 in terms of revenue now. It was media segments that had the major losses with Linear Networks dropping nearly $900m QoQ and nearly $400m YoY, Content Sales and Licensing continues to lose a small amount, peak losses in streaming this quarter so was a bad look for all that to happen in unison. I'm still waiting for the 2022 full year report to see what we are looking at in terms of Pay TV subs but not a good story for legacy media companies that even Disney with ESPN is getting impacted negatively with lower affiliate fees and advertising, Linear Networks have been able to be steady for years for Disney but I worry FY23 will be fairly ugly.

Not as big a drop as Roku, WBD and Paramount (all were double digits) but down ~6% after-hours not great, erosion of linear networks and ad market weakness hurting the media sector.

Wouldn't say it is dead but not great either, it is super top heavy. Here is 2022 year to date top 10 Vs. 2019 and 2018 All of these are from the Kobiz website, you can see revenue share of the top film for 2022 The Roundup is 13.82% (it will come down some in the next 2 months) but that is crazy compared to Extreme Job at 7.29% and Along with the Gods at 5.65%, not exactly healthy for non blockbuster titles (be they local or Hollywood.) Also the local films doing the best this year are sequels/spinoffs much like most Hollywood films now so probably just a shift in viewership to something that is familiar in cinemas and the rest on SVOD which seems to be a mostly global trend at this point.

First off I get the frustrations with the studios/streamers particularly with what has happened in the last couple of months. Ideally I would like for the best parts of physical media and streaming to be combined but that seems an impossibility so having both is good, although I'd also like more support for both (more Dolby Vision 4K releases and more older catalogue titles on streaming.) My original comment was a bit of frustration at having 4 physical copies of the original Star Wars trilogy, 3 copies of the LoTR extended editions etc. just to stay up to date on the best quality release (and those weren't cheap.) Personally I have a very small collection of 4K Blu-rays because of being burned in the past by having a new format release the old one and most of the time the ease of streaming means I'll watch it there (although I know data caps are a big thing in the US that I don't have to deal with) I still prefer physical media for when I watch on a projector though, as streaming compression is much more noticeable (in particular HD/1080p) on a 150-200 inch screen. Also going back to Avatar the problem with watching Avatar on DVD or Blu-Ray is it doesn't have the upgrades of 4K HDR that the recent cinema release so if people that are wanting to see it for those improvements will have to wait for either Disney+, a digital upgrade on iTunes (or other digital storefronts) or 4K Blu-ray release, so it is not like physical or digital purchases solve that problem.

The king ... of making me buy movies every time they update the format! My VHS collection isn't getting much use and even if if I did get an HDMI compatible VHS player I'm not sure I would want to watch those on my OLED, same with DVD although much easier to watch admittedly. Blu-Ray and 4K Blu-Ray still look good though, although I would love to have more Dolby Vision support for 4K and a way to Rip a playable Dolby Vision version for preservation.

Maybe but given how beloved the films are that seems fairly risky. If WBD didn’t have a bunch of debt, I could have seen a Lucasfilm style big deal for full rights to Harry Potter but alas. Also not sure how much Zaslav is willing to spend up on films yet, Superman will be interesting to see who they get as a director, if it is McQuarrie (god I hope so) or someone of that stature I think a Harry Potter 8 (or 9) would be more likely (though still difficult)

Problem is more Dan/Emma than Twitter crowd, I think it would take a lot to get them to work with something that JK is heavily involved in again. Dan reconfirmed his criticism of JK only a few days ago: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/daniel-radcliffe-defends-speaking-out-against-j-k-rowling-controversial-comments/

Ignoring that WBD has done much worse than it's media peers since it was formed in April, they also missed on the top/bottom line as well, both down 8% year on year (excluding foreign exchange) source (the first 3 bullet points after the quote from DZ): https://s201.q4cdn.com/336605034/files/doc_financials/2022/q3/WBD-3Q22-Earnings-Release-Final-11.3.22.pdf Advertising and affiliate fees from cable are starting to really falter which is something that Zaslav was talking up as a way to pay down debt, streaming is not making up for lost revenue in those segments, theatrical is still challenged and the new heads of Warner and DC will take time to green light and release new films (probably 2-3 years) so are reliant on films made by the old regime. The one thing they are talking up is a FAST (free ad supported) streaming service similar to Pluto or Tubi, that may help them some but likely not enough to offset the declines in their biggest segments.

Pathaan looks awesome, I'm excited for it looks like a Mission Impossible knockoff but in a good way, will make sure to watch it for sure. If the film is as good as the trailer might have a film to challenge Dangal as my favourite Indian film. Also are there any other Bollywood (or Indian films in general) that are like Pathaan, that are worth checking out?

It's a little higher at 2.8m but yeah still a miss also only 500k US additions which seems very very low.

Best episode in a few weeks (still not as good as the MI style steal the pay roll arc), without going into spoilers that ending was more of what I wanted to see from this show.

I have finished all the episodes now and wow the first episode was the weakest of the bunch, this was fantastic and I would love more with other characters. Also love how much they fleshed out missing parts of the timeline around TPM and Rebels.

Only watched the first episode so far (going to take my time with it) but I loved it! This is more of what I want from Star Wars, I'm happy for everyone loving Andor* but I'm much more excited for the next 5 episodes of this Baby Ahsoka is so adorable and *By the way I like Andor before anyone tries to go after me, might be my least favourite Star Wars show so far from Disney+ though.

Like the split leadership with Gunn overseeing the creative output, hopefully good things come of this.

I'm also going to wait and hope I don't get spoiled on anything, but usually these happen maybe a day early ... for it to happen this early from a European partner is pretty wild and a massive fuck up for whoever slipped up.

Damn, that is a early leak!

They have the Guardians Holiday Special for December (presumably) I personally would hold it back until early February if possible to line up with a Black History Month release.

source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/nbcuniversal-early-retirement-cost-cutting-move-1235245955/

It will certainly be up there, don't know if will match TFA (that was wild) but then again I'm a big ol Star Wars nerd so maybe I'm biased. Then again to counter myself when they do put the original Avatar back up on Disney+ in 4K, if done correctly, that will be a nice marketing push (for lack of a better term) that they didn't have back in 2015.

Have not seen Black Adam but your first place and last place are my top 2 lol, don't know what that will mean for my enjoyment of Black Adam. As for the rest I thought MoM was fine, Superpets was cute and funnier than I thought I would be, couldn't make it through Morbius.

6:55 "I'm really Excited for the new Avatar, that's the one I'm tuned into, the way of water that's my lifestyle right there, that's exciting" Disney/20th/Lightstorm need to get Play as a spokesperson lol.

Delta variant of COVID was really bad in Europe (and possibly Asia) around the time of the Venom 2 release if I remember correctly. edit: also strong competition from No Time to Die across Europe.

Moonfall is still the biggest bomb! Less than $60m on a ~$140m budget.