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

[dudalb]

I wonder how this will impact the Babylon 5 reboot, since Babylon 5 is probably my all time favorite Sci Fi TV series.

[cax16]

 

[Grebacio]

37 minutes ago, cax16 said:

 

25 a year sounds like too much.

12 - 18 per year should be enough.

[belblazer]

Seems like Zaslav is going to piss off a lot of talents. I don't see this ending up in a good way for DC. Everything I'm reading feels like he wants to turn DC in a MCU and I don't like that.

 

But I'm hoping for the best.

[AJG]

New Article from WSJ opens with this BANGER

 

Quote

David Zaslav gathered movie-studio executives and grilled them about a recent string of box-office flops, including “Cry Macho,” a Clint Eastwood neo-Western. Warner Bros. executives conceded they had doubted the movie would turn a profit, people familiar with the meeting said. Why, Mr. Zaslav asked, was “Cry Macho” made if they had reservations? When they replied that Mr. Eastwood had given the studio many hits and never delivered a movie late or over budget, he answered: We don’t owe anyone any favors. “It’s not show friends, it’s show business,” he told them.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/warner-bros-discovery-david-zaslav-11652822285
 

We’re turning WB in Disney baby. This man is the son of Iger.

[filmlover]

They cancelled the Wonder Twins movie because $75M was too much for a streaming title? No wonder Blue Beetle and (if the rumors pan out) Batgirl are going to theaters instead since the budgets for them are reportedly in the same area.

 

Also in the article says they're looking to meet with JK in the weeks ahead about Harry Potter content for HBO Max, which feels like confirmation Fantastic Beasts is officially dead. Hopefully whatever they come up with actually feels planned (instead of the obvious "making it up as we go along" vibe that ended up killing those movies) this time around.

[grim22]

10 minutes ago, AJG said:

New Article from WSJ opens with this BANGER

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/warner-bros-discovery-david-zaslav-11652822285
 

We’re turning WB in Disney baby. This man is the son of Iger.

 

Yeah, that made no sense. Like if you cut ties with Clint Eastwood after he delivers back to back bombs Hereafter, J Edgar and Jersey Boys, you miss out on the 4 back to back movies which made money in American Sniper, Sully, The Mule and 15:17 To Paris (which had a low enough budget that it ended up making money for them).

 

Now he has delivered Richard Jewell and Cry Macho (which admittedly had other mitigating circumstances around it), but what is to say that another The Mule or Sully isn't around the corner.

 

The irony is that J Edgar and Jersey Boys are exactly the types of movies you would greenlight based on this thinking but The Mule and American Sniper less so. The first 2 have big stars and/or are musicals which normally did well, the second two feel like they have big stars in hindsight but American Sniper somewhat made Bradley Cooper into the star he is now. And without American Sniper, you don't get A Star Is Born because Cooper guiding Sniper's post-production was what gave WB enough confidence in him directing as well.

 

It's all linked in the end instead of looking at things as one movie stand-alone.

[AJG]

Fun WSJ article tidbits for those that don’t want to sub to Murdoch

 

Quote

Mr. Zaslav wants Warner Bros. to focus on increasing its number of theatrical releases to between 20 and 25 a year, a person familiar with his thinking said. Theatrical movies also tend to perform better on HBO Max than movies made exclusively for the service. Last year, Warner Bros. released 17 movies.

 

At the same time, Mr. Zaslav is looking to make fresh “Harry Potter”-related content for HBO Max—Warner Bros. made all the wizarding franchise’s movies—people familiar with his thinking said, and plans to meet with creator J.K. Rowling in the coming weeks to discuss the matter. 

 

Mr. Zaslav also wants to re-examine children’s programming, another big investment area at Warner Bros, some of the people said. The new leaders aren’t sure children’s content is a good fit on HBO Max, where the ratings haven’t been strong, people familiar with their thinking said. Mr. Zaslav doesn’t want to abandon the business—Warner owns significant cartoon libraries, from Looney Tunes to Hanna-Barbera—but isn’t sold on the current strategy, they said.

 

[filmlover]

Quote

 

At the same time, one source said the budget was too high for what is considered an HBO Max movie. Twins was looking at a $75 million budget but according to sources, Zaslav wants to keep HBO Max original movies $35 million and under. He has concluded that higher budgeted offerings do not add enough value, ie., add a significant number of subscribers, as much as having the more modestly-budgeted movies that seem to do the job of retaining subs. Original theatrical movies, however, do a gangbuster job of attracting subscribers, The Batman being a huge hit for the service, according to several sources.

 

“A lot of things that were developed are going to do away,” said another insider, referring to the broader scrutiny that is coming to the slates of many Warner divisions, including film.

 

DC Movie ‘Wonder Twins’ Shut Down by Warner Bros. – The Hollywood Reporter

[dudalb]

39 minutes ago, belblazer said:

Seems like Zaslav is going to piss off a lot of talents. I don't see this ending up in a good way for DC. Everything I'm reading feels like he wants to turn DC in a MCU and I don't like that.

 

But I'm hoping for the best.

Uh DC has been trying to be another MCU for a long .long, time...going back to the Green Lantern movie in fact which was meant to b the Iron Man for the DCU. They just have not done a good job with it.

Nothing new with this.

And you can't Warners for wanting to  emulate the MCU, given how much money the MCU has made for Disney.

 

 

[dudalb]

29 minutes ago, filmlover said:

They cancelled the Wonder Twins movie because $75M was too much for a streaming title? No wonder Blue Beetle and (if the rumors pan out) Batgirl are going to theaters instead since the budgets for them are reportedly in the same area.

 

Also in the article says they're looking to meet with JK in the weeks ahead about Harry Potter content for HBO Max, which feels like confirmation Fantastic Beasts is officially dead. Hopefully whatever they come up with actually feels planned (instead of the obvious "making it up as we go along" vibe that ended up killing those movies) this time around.

The idea of spending the amount on TV movies you would spend on a major Threatical movie is  fairly new. FOr a long time the rule was you spend less on any project then you would spend if the project was a threatrical release.

Clear that the new management is out to cut costs. That is not bad in itself,, a studio that does not control costs will soon be in big rouble.....but the trick it to do it without also hurting quality.

[dudalb]

56 minutes ago, Grebacio said:

25 a year sounds like too much.

12 - 18 per year should be enough.

Agreed. In today's market you are going to have films hurt each other by being released too close together.

[grim22]

This is actually not a bad edict

 

 

35M is still a good chunk of change, and can work to get lesser seen genres on screen. Romcoms, straight romances, legal thrillers, basically the 90s.

 

[Eric Prime]

The animation blurb reeks of those Netflix division layoffs. I'm assuming it won't be as bad, but it still feels like it will lead to the usual bad stuff.

[TheDude391]

WB was always the outlier in that they tended to have strong director relationships and would give them a lot more free reign than other studios but that doesn't seem like it'll be the case anymore sadly.  That Eastwood comment is troubling if that's how they're gonna view all their long term collaborators. 

Edited May 18, 2022 by TheDude391

[Gopher]

Warners doubling (tripling?) their number of theatrical releases from 2022 is the absolute funniest outcome to the Windowing Wars of the streaming/covid era. 

[HouseOfTheSun]

32 minutes ago, grim22 said:

 

Yeah, that made no sense. Like if you cut ties with Clint Eastwood after he delivers back to back bombs Hereafter, J Edgar and Jersey Boys, you miss out on the 4 back to back movies which made money in American Sniper, Sully, The Mule and 15:17 To Paris (which had a low enough budget that it ended up making money for them).

 

Now he has delivered Richard Jewell and Cry Macho (which admittedly had other mitigating circumstances around it), but what is to say that another The Mule or Sully isn't around the corner.

 

The irony is that J Edgar and Jersey Boys are exactly the types of movies you would greenlight based on this thinking but The Mule and American Sniper less so. The first 2 have big stars and/or are musicals which normally did well, the second two feel like they have big stars in hindsight but American Sniper somewhat made Bradley Cooper into the star he is now. And without American Sniper, you don't get A Star Is Born because Cooper guiding Sniper's post-production was what gave WB enough confidence in him directing as well.

 

It's all linked in the end instead of looking at things as one movie stand-alone.

Clint Eastwood is also beyond geriatric and Sully which was his last real hit was 6 years ago now. 

[dudalb]

3 minutes ago, grim22 said:

This is actually not a bad edict

 

 

35M is still a good chunk of change, and can work to get lesser seen genres on screen. Romcoms, straight romances, legal thrillers, basically the 90s.

 

I think the specific cancellation of Wonder Twins had to do with Zaslev's skepticism about spending a lot of  money on shows aimed at kids on the streaming channels...which Wonder Twins would have been.

 

[HouseOfTheSun]

7 minutes ago, grim22 said:

This is actually not a bad edict

 

 

35M is still a good chunk of change, and can work to get lesser seen genres on screen. Romcoms, straight romances, legal thrillers, basically the 90s.

 

Slashing HBO Max’s original budget, likely hamstringing true HBO budget. Lol that cash Warner generates is going straight into Discovery’s reality side to push more production. 

[dudalb]

2 minutes ago, Gopher said:

Warners doubling (tripling?) their number of theatrical releases from 2022 is the absolute funniest outcome to the Windowing Wars of the streaming/covid era. 

In todays market, guaranteed the Warners films will cannabalize each other.  A release schedule that tight might have worked in the past, but not in today's market.