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

[dudalb]

14 hours ago, Porthos said:

You know without taking sides on this whole thing vis a vis WB and hiring, I will say that I am old enough to remember when lots of folks were talking about the bridges being burnt over in the land of Disney thanks to Chapek's numerous fuckups.

 

Funny how that all turned out.

DIsney was not facing a crisis that could  bankrupt the company the way that WB is.

[Cappoedameron]

 

[Potiki]

17 hours ago, Porthos said:

You know without taking sides on this whole thing vis a vis WB and hiring, I will say that I am old enough to remember when lots of folks were talking about the bridges being burnt over in the land of Disney thanks to Chapek's numerous fuckups.

 

Funny how that all turned out.

I think Disney held up fairly well due to the heads of numerous studios being well liked (Feige, Kennedy, Doctor, Lee, Landgraf etc.) and Chapek not messing with the money/funding too much. 

 

I feel like HBO under Bloys should be fine long term but other parts of the company like WB and New Line, Cartoon Network, CNN etc. are more unknown at this time as either the heads of those divisions are changing or funding is seemingly getting cut. 

 

You are right that it is still early though and plenty of time for things to change be they better or worse. 

[Cappoedameron]

 

Fuck you Zaslav!

[AJG]

3 hours ago, Cappoedameron said:

 

I hate when people take a pic of a stock chart and then try to explain it with some completely wrong nonsensical personalised spin.

 

This guy said “fandom”…

[Eric Burnett]

9 minutes ago, Cappoedameron said:

 

Fuck you Zaslav!

If you bother to read the article, the show is still getting worked on and is being shopped to other networks/services. There's enough lame stuff about the Zas that we don't need to make stuff up about him.

[cax16]

7 minutes ago, AJG said:

I hate when people take a pic of a stock chart and then try to explain it with some completely wrong nonsensical personalised spin.

 

This guy said “fandom”…

All I had to see was “moviebob” to know it’s not even worth reading. 

[lorddemaxus]

18 minutes ago, AJG said:

I hate when people take a pic of a stock chart and then try to explain it with some completely wrong nonsensical personalised spin.

 

This guy said “fandom”…

Yeah, stock's tanking but like, Wall Street and stockholders do not give a shit about Cartoon Network. It probably has more to do with the fact that they are moving away from streaming and this merger in general seemed like a bad idea from the start.

[WittyUsername]

At this point, it’d be funny if the Batman cartoon were to end up on Disney+. Seriously though, if the show isn’t being canceled, why not just put it on HBO Max? Does Zaslav want HBO Max to fail? 

Edited August 23, 2022 by WittyUsername

[El Squibbonator]

Essentially, yes. At least that's my reading of all this. All of the cancellations we've seen have been for shows and movies intended exclusively for HBO Max. Those that were intended for theatrical release, or for traditional television, have for the most part been unaffected. Notice how Batman: Caped Crusader is being shopped out to other streaming services? There's a reason for that. See, Batman: Caped Crusader was intended for both HBO Max and Cartoon Network, so while it's no longer going to premier on HBO Max as per the original plan, it's presumably still going to air on Cartoon Network. 

 

I'm not entirely sure what Zaslav hopes to gain from gutting HBO Max, but whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be affecting theatrical movies or linear TV. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that's the case, because if he were to set his sights on those other areas I would lose what little sanity I have left. 

[Cappoedameron]

 

[Napoleon]

2 hours ago, Cappoedameron said:

 

They should have learned from Zack Snyder and stolen the hard drive 😂

[Jonan23]

10 hours ago, Eric the Lion said:

If you bother to read the article, the show is still getting worked on and is being shopped to other networks/services. There's enough lame stuff about the Zas that we don't need to make stuff up about him.

If I were Netflix or Disney I would scoop this up as quickly as I could. 

[WittyUsername]

6 hours ago, El Squibbonator said:

Essentially, yes. At least that's my reading of all this. All of the cancellations we've seen have been for shows and movies intended exclusively for HBO Max. Those that were intended for theatrical release, or for traditional television, have for the most part been unaffected. Notice how Batman: Caped Crusader is being shopped out to other streaming services? There's a reason for that. See, Batman: Caped Crusader was intended for both HBO Max and Cartoon Network, so while it's no longer going to premier on HBO Max as per the original plan, it's presumably still going to air on Cartoon Network. 

 

I'm not entirely sure what Zaslav hopes to gain from gutting HBO Max, but whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be affecting theatrical movies or linear TV. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that's the case, because if he were to set his sights on those other areas I would lose what little sanity I have left. 

Maybe this is all part of Christopher Nolan’s master plan to destroy HBO Max. 

[WrathOfHan]

Now, I need to impress upon you... None of this ever happened. None of it. Understand? Say it out loud. I need to hear it. 

 

[M37]

For all those complaining about these recent cancellations, I have just one simple question: what would you have liked them to do instead? Standing pat isn’t an option given their financial situation. 

 

Previous management way overextended themselves, tying up far too much cash in trying to pump up streaming, in a market where the bubble has popped. Continuing those agreements keeps future debt on the books, for product that returns little direct or even indirect revenue, doesn’t really fit with how they envision the platform (whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen) and now instead can be sold/licensed to other platforms. 
 

With that said, that these cuts run the risk of alienating talent for future projects is a valid concern, and WB will have to earn back some trust on the creative side. In general though, I think audiences have been a little spoiled recently with the glut of content as everyone jumped into the stream pool and didn’t care as much about costs, and now we’re in the pull back phase, where there will be fewer seats to go around

[AJG]

15 minutes ago, M37 said:

For all those complaining about these recent cancellations, I have just one simple question: what would you have liked them to do instead? 

 

 

 

They could've literally sold the deleted productions to other services and communicated that to creators, stakeholders, and audiences weeks beforehand.

 

Instead they've removed dozens of complete and damn near complete productions almost instantaneously from their service, and removed all mention of them from their social media and promotional channels as if these productions never existed. 

[Eric Burnett]

21 minutes ago, M37 said:

For all those complaining about these recent cancellations, I have just one simple question: what would you have liked them to do instead? Standing pat isn’t an option given their financial situation. 

 

Previous management way overextended themselves, tying up far too much cash in trying to pump up streaming, in a market where the bubble has popped. Continuing those agreements keeps future debt on the books, for product that returns little direct or even indirect revenue, doesn’t really fit with how they envision the platform (whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen) and now instead can be sold/licensed to other platforms. 
 

With that said, that these cuts run the risk of alienating talent for future projects is a valid concern, and WB will have to earn back some trust on the creative side. In general though, I think audiences have been a little spoiled recently with the glut of content as everyone jumped into the stream pool and didn’t care as much about costs, and now we’re in the pull back phase, where there will be fewer seats to go around

This is more than just cancelations. If this was a scenario where HBO Max just simply canceled these Cartoon Network shows with no new seasons, it's understandable. If a movie/show was scrapped early in development or even pre-production, I get it. It sucks for people who love those shows or want to see these new movies/series that aren't happening, but that's the nature of the business and a common tactic people in the industry deal with.

 

The problem is they are hiding and deleting completed projects away from the world, which is blatantly anti-art and a ghoulish slap in the face to the creatives that's way worse than simply being canceled. And it seems like the tax write-offs are barely a drop in the water for WBD's debt. Batgirl was directed by the Bad Boys 3 guys. Is it worth giving the cold shoulder to one of the biggest rising director teams? 

 

As for the shows and original movies being randomly removed, while they're thankfully available to buy/rent on digital stores (though who knows how long that will last), it's being done with little warning, when the plan was to at least let the creators know, and the money-saving ventures seem miniscule too. The costs to keep them on their servers is probably not much, and lack of residuals being paid is also going against the animators and their healthcare. That's evil stuff right there. And what's more, is that the residuals aren't really that much anyways when it comes to streaming, and the people affected aren't even getting paid that much. The Infinity Train creator blatantly stated he only got about $400 from residuals from voicing one of the characters over one quarter. Meanwhile, HBO Max is still proudly showcasing Friends and ER on the service. And I'm pretty confident Jennifer Aniston's and George Clooney's residuals cost a lot more. So that strategy makes no sense.

 

And even if they do end up getting licensed on Netflix or Amazon, it's not like it can still play on HBO Max. Disney licenses and shares their movies and shows with the competition all the time. Desperate Housewives and Lost are on Hulu and Freevee. The Bernie Mac Show's on Hulu, Amazon Prime, Tubi, and Peacock. Paramount has NCIS and Spongebob on Paramount+ and Amazon/Netflix. And even if those are "legacy content", this is still true of originals. The Orville and Love, Victor are on both Hulu and Disney+, HBO Max originals like The Flight Attendant and Titans have already played on cable, Kamp Koral has aired episodes on Nickelodeon, Zombies 3 just aired on Disney Channel a couple weeks ago. They're all owned by the same company, but there's precedent for streaming originals to move elsewhere. I think it's possible for Infinity Train or An American Pickle to stream on HBO Max and Netflix. Zas can still get that licensing money and they get more exposure which can boost them on both platforms.

[El Squibbonator]

So how come theatrical movies and shows on legacy TV seem to be safe, for the most part? It's only HBO Max that they're gutting. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by El Squibbonator

[AJG]

19 minutes ago, El Squibbonator said:

So how come theatrical movies and shows on legacy TV seem to be safe, for the most part? It's only HBO Max that they're gutting. 

In the US they just lost 300,000 subs, their growth is slow internationally, and about 40 million people are getting the service for free through their traditional HBO Subscription. On top of that: streaming does not yield the high revenues of cable. It costs a lot to operate and makes too little.