The Warner Bros. Thread | Will NOT merge with Paramount...capitalism is still terrible

[cax16]

2 minutes ago, excel1 said:

ZERO chance that WB do not reverse course in the very near point. This is an unmitigated disaster.

 

This is all do to their beyond incompetent handling of release dates. 

Let’s hope for an ever better outcome and for AT&T to sell them. 

[Eric Duncan]

1 hour ago, cax16 said:

I truly hope they sell DC to someone, Stankey seems like he doesn’t even realize/care what he has so I hope he’s dumb enough to sell that IP. 

I agree. It's been too long. We need Killer Frost vs. Elsa.

[excel1]

Time to hire @excel1 to fix this mess! It is the only way. What are WB executives thinking by waiting as long as they have?

[meridan]

This isn't exactly what WarnerMedia needed right before their big blockbuster is about to hit their streaming service. What a disaster. 

[cax16]

2 minutes ago, Eric Karga said:

I agree. It's been too long. We need Killer Frost vs. Elsa.

I’d be fine with Disney buying them, at least things would be handled properly. 

[Macleod]

In an alternate universe, WW84 and Bond would have been released November 2019, grossed a mint, prepared our world with a bit more optimism in the appearance of a globally-destructive health crisis, and set Warner Bros. and MGM on a smoother path for the next year, wherein MGM's chief stockholder wouldn't have tried to entertain offers from streamers behind Barbara Broccoli's back, and AT&T execs wouldn't have even had to consider propping up HBOMax with their theatrical "assets."  

 

"WarnerMedia" will definitely be sold off within the next two years; AT&T won't be able to live this down -- but in the meantime, the real tragedy is that they gutted most significant Warners people with actual passion about filmmaking, and with one surprise move, completely screwed their long-established relationships with great Hollywood filmmakers, stars, writers, producers.  

[filmlover]

Disney is likely gonna drive home that they actually respect and communicate with the talent they hire big time at that investors thing later this week. The other studios will probably put out similar "we believe in our filmmakers" statements in the near future too after this mess.

[TMP]

9 minutes ago, cax16 said:

I’d be fine with Disney buying them

uhhhhhhh

[excel1]

WB is an iconic studio. They will figure it out. Obvious they need to walk this back and get more personable execs though. 

[Eric Duncan]

2 minutes ago, TMP said:

uhhhhhhh

Plastic Man vs. Elastigirl. How can you not want this?????

[Yandereprime101189]

Oooof.

 

On the one hand, I always wanted to see a movie of big scale like Wonder Woman 1984 be released simultaneously in theaters and streaming/digital/etc and last week I was under the impression that they had already come to terms behind the scenes with all these other movies/filmmakers to go through with this.

 

But this...yeah, this is a clusterfuck. 

[excel1]

2 minutes ago, Yandereprime101189 said:

Oooof.

 

On the one hand, I always wanted to see a movie of big scale like Wonder Woman 1984 be released simultaneously in theaters and streaming/digital/etc and last week I was under the impression that they had already come to terms behind the scenes with all these other movies/filmmakers to go through with this.

 

But this...yeah, this is a clusterfuck. 

 

 

I cannot understate how much this stems for their pathetic performance in the release date war.

 

Other films would have avoided WW84 if WB had just pushed it back properly. Instead playing this dumb game and ending up fucking themselves. 

 

Half to the regulars at the World of KJ could have done a better job handling this. 

[Nova]

Haven’t been on here in a while but this move by WB interested me a lot. 

 

I think their biggest mistake was moving their whole slate to HBO Max without consulting anyone about it. What they should have done is waited to see how Wonder Woman did and then make a decision by talking with filmmakers and talent about their options with regards to streaming. 

 

Look as much as it pains me to say this: no one knows when things are going to go back to normal. A vaccine is getting ready to be implemented, yes, but we don’t know what the long term effects with regards to immunity are, we don’t know how compliant people are going to be in getting vaccinated and finally even if the vaccine works, we don’t know when people are going to be comfortable with going back to the theaters. After what happened with Tenet and looking at the state of the box office, I don’t blame WB at all for deciding to put their 2021 slate on HBO Max because there’s so much uncertainty moving forward. What I blame them for is how they handled and executed it. The people involved should have been consulted. Point blank. Unfortunately because they weren’t, WB probably shot themselves in the foot and consequences of this decision are going to be felt for years. I certainly feel like this was an impulse decision by them thinking they’d look good publicly by making their films available for streaming during the pandemic and giving HBO Max a much needed boost but i don’t believe they thought through how the industry would view it.

 

In the end they fucked over their relationship with a bunch of top talent and they don’t even know if this will be a benefit to them financially which I imagine is the biggest reason why they went through with this decision so a big mess all around that could have been avoided if WB ya know talked to the people involved in making these films. 

[filmlover]

How long until AT&T sells off WB the movie studio? Especially when they end up seeing very little profit in the next year due to turning multiple 9-digit movies into write-offs.

[Fullbuster]

8 minutes ago, Nova said:

Haven’t been on here in a while but this move by WB interested me a lot. 

 

I think their biggest mistake was moving their whole slate to HBO Max without consulting anyone about it. What they should have done is waited to see how Wonder Woman did and then make a decision by talking with filmmakers and talent about their options with regards to streaming. 

 

Look as much as it pains me to say this: no one knows when things are going to go back to normal. A vaccine is getting ready to be implemented, yes, but we don’t know what the long term effects with regards to immunity are, we don’t know how compliant people are going to be in getting vaccinated and finally even if the vaccine works, we don’t know when people are going to be comfortable with going back to the theaters. After what happened with Tenet and looking at the state of the box office, I don’t blame WB at all for deciding to put their 2021 slate on HBO Max because there’s so much uncertainty moving forward. What I blame them for is how they handled and executed it. The people involved should have been consulted. Point blank. Unfortunately because they weren’t, WB probably shot themselves in the foot and consequences of this decision are going to be felt for years. I certainly feel like this was an impulse decision by them thinking they’d look good publicly by making their films available for streaming during the pandemic and giving HBO Max a much needed boost but i don’t believe they thought through how the industry would view it.

 

In the end they fucked over their relationship with a bunch of top talent and they don’t even know if this will be a benefit to them financially which I imagine is the biggest reason why they went through with this decision so a big mess all around that could have been avoided if WB ya know talked to the people involved in making these films. 

 

Honestly, this decision by Warner Bros (and the premise of Disney ready to do something similar) made this forum more alive than it has been since last year   I probably posted more in the last few days than the rest of the year combined ^^

 

Apart from that I agree with you: WB's decision made sense, it was a good one but they completely failed the execution and there will be consequences. Disney will talk about their plans on December 10 and I'm sure they'll handle things much better.

[cax16]

3 minutes ago, filmlover said:

How long until AT&T sells off WB the movie studio? Especially when they end up seeing very little profit in the next year due to turning multiple 9-digit movies into write-offs.

I really wonder what Hbomax numbers need to look like for them to consider this a success?

[filmlover]

2 minutes ago, cax16 said:

I really wonder what Hbomax numbers need to look like for them to consider this a success?

Considering HBO Max is mainly available in only one country (and the expansion plans are mostly vague), probably a lot.

Edited December 8, 2020 by filmlover

[TMP]

I'll be surprised if HBO Max isn't still a flop a year from now

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, TMP said:

I'll be surprised if HBO Max isn't still a flop a year from now

They really should've delayed the launch until they had a clear plan as to what the service would offer. Trying to take a short cut to success usually tends to backfire.

[cax16]

2 minutes ago, filmlover said:

They really should've delayed the launch until they had a clear plan as to what the service would offer. Trying to take a short cut to success usually tends to backfire.

Agreed.