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

[dudalb]

2 hours ago, WittyUsername said:

Out of all the boneheaded decisions Zaslav has made, I’ve since come to the conclusion that what he’s been doing to HBO Max doesn’t really matter. People on Twitter can go on about how great HBO Max is all they want, but the simple fact is that the service wasn’t doing so hot in terms of subscribers. It doesn’t matter how great your content supposedly is if not many people are interested enough to subscribe to your service for it.

 

HBO Max simply didn’t need to exist and it’s existence has caused more headaches for the studio in the long run. AT&T was arrogant to think that WB was beloved enough to justify such an endeavor. 
 

That doesn’t excuse Zaslav axing movies that were already well into post-production, though. At the very least, they could’ve sold those movies to Netflix or something. 

Disney + is crushing HBOMAX in terms of subscribers for one reason:It offers a lot more good content for a lot less money.

[WittyUsername]

31 minutes ago, dudalb said:

Disney + is crushing HBOMAX in terms of subscribers for one reason:It offers a lot more good content for a lot less money.

HBO Max has better variety. The problem is that Disney+ has far more commercially appealing IP’s. 

[Potiki]

2 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

HBO Max has better variety. The problem is that Disney+ has far more commercially appealing IP’s. 

With the way Warner counted HBO Max subs (they include HBO subs from cable) HBO Max and Disney+ were at similar subscriber counts domestically (US and Canada) WBD now reports combined subs for HBO Max and Discovery+ so impossible to know exact sub count for HBO Max currently  

 

However one of the big problems for HBO Max is they haven't launched in markets like Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, India, Korea, Japan etc. which are all huge streaming markets and all markets that Disney+ does well in, Disney+ also has a much broader variety in those markets with a lot of adult skewing content like Dopesick, Only Murders, The Kardashians, Prey etc. as well as local/regional originals. The lack of international expansion was always going to limit HBO Max and in the markets they are internationally they have cut down or completely stopped in some cases funding local/regional originals, that is what I believe has truely stopped them from getting to 100m+ subs and competing with the likes of Disney, Amazon and Netflix as a big global player. 

[keysersoze123]

42 minutes ago, dudalb said:

Disney + is crushing HBOMAX in terms of subscribers for one reason:It offers a lot more good content for a lot less money.

I disagree. HBO has way more diverse and interesting content. Disney is just about their franchises and so targets those fanbase. FYI there are adults who like to see something beyond just SH and SW tv. Game of Thrones has shown there is no limit to how big these tv shows can be. 

That said if Disney combines D+ with hulu it could be more interesting. May be that will happen at some time. 

 

[Potiki]

Just now, keysersoze123 said:

That said if Disney combines D+ with hulu it could be more interesting. May be that will happen at some time. 

 

For ~70% of the Disney+ subscriber base (Canada, APAC, Europe and Africa) that is kind of already the case, all the Disney produced Hulu originals and most froth library content is on Disney+ as Hulu doesn't exist outside of the US and Japan (Japan is just the brand name Hulu though and not affiliated with Disney anymore) 

[bobdysm]

1 hour ago, dudalb said:

I have had it with Zaslev.

He is not to blame for Warner's debt problems...you can blame past administrations for that...but he just making things worse.

Yes, deep,deep cuts were inevitable..any studio head would have had to do that. 

But he seems to have no idea of what to cut and what to keep. The way he is going, HBO/MAX or whatever the hell they call the streaming service is not going to have enough content to keep subscribers. If he think people will pay 15 bucks a month for a network largely consisting of dumb reality shows, he has another thing coming.

I have given him the benefit of the doubt, given the realities of the debt crisis he was facing, but he gets that benefit no more. He has now become part of the problem.

He is to blame for their debt. The amount of debt Discovery took on from AT&T was part of the negotiation. They could have taken on less debt. But they might not have been able to get AT&T to agree to a deal if that were the case

[excel1]

Cannot believe they have not hired @excel1 yet

Edited October 19, 2022 by excel1

[ChipDerby]

1 hour ago, dudalb said:

Disney + is crushing HBOMAX in terms of subscribers for one reason:It offers a lot more good content for a lot less money.

 

This is just literally not true, LMAO. The prices are almost identical, and HBO Max has a ton more "content".

[excel1]

In all seriousness, I would hope that everyone knows that Zaslav has access to all sorts of data and generally has much more informed opinions than any of us. He very well may be looking at the performances Shazam, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 2, and The Suicide Squad and concluding that the "DCEU" brand is virtually worthless. If BA underperforms, the notion is simply reinforced even further. 

 

No doubt that means they will need to be EXTREMELY careful of what product they actually put out to not further diminish what brand equity the DCEU has left. BA is so high profile and expensive that it has to be released, but smaller projects are a very different story. Of course the 2 popular, big hit DC films are unrelated to the DCEU. 

[cax16]

9 minutes ago, excel1 said:

In all seriousness, I would hope that everyone knows that Zaslav has access to all sorts of data and generally has much more informed opinions than any of us. He very well may be looking at the performances Shazam, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 2, and The Suicide Squad and concluding that the "DCEU" brand is virtually worthless. If BA underperforms, the notion is simply reinforced even further. 

 

No doubt that means they will need to be EXTREMELY careful of what product they actually put out to not further diminish what brand equity the DCEU has left. BA is so high profile and expensive that it has to be released, but smaller projects are a very different story. Of course the 2 popular, big hit DC films are unrelated to the DCEU. 

Aquaman made more than both and Wonder Woman made more then Batman. BA box office should only impact what they decide to spin off from BA, not other projects. Time and time again we’ve seen DC movies can stand on their own when they’re good.
 

I’m pretty confident that Shazam FOTG and the flash are at least good movies from what I’ve read about them so they just have to see how those are received and go from there. 

Edited October 20, 2022 by cax16

[cax16]

The biggest issue with the DC films is there’s been no build up to really anything, and while I’ve liked everything not everyone has. So where does that leave you? Basically everyone movie stands on its own. Whatever opinion you have of the mcu they’ve done an unbelievable job of building up to where they are. 

[excel1]

Aquaman benefited heavily from the holiday release no doubt, which is clearly the premiere release date of the year. Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and MAYBE Flash are still big enough to carry themselves. Wonder Woman, hard to say coming off the widely hated WW1984. 

[cax16]

1 minute ago, excel1 said:

Aquaman benefited heavily from the holiday release no doubt, which is clearly the premiere release date of the year. Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and MAYBE Flash are still big enough to carry themselves. Wonder Woman, hard to say coming off the widely hated WW1984. 

I don’t think ww84 is as hated as the internet makes you think it is. With that said, The third movie will have to be much better obviously and people will wait for reviews this time around where that probably wouldn’t of happened with ww84 cause of the good will from the first movie. 

[Liiviig 1998]

3 hours ago, cax16 said:

The biggest issue with the DC films is there’s been no build up to really anything, and while I’ve liked everything not everyone has. So where does that leave you? Basically everyone movie stands on its own. Whatever opinion you have of the mcu they’ve done an unbelievable job of building up to where they are. 

Yeah for 3 phases but the current phase has been all over the place.

 

Phase 5 with quantumania I think is where saga starts to kick into gear.

 

Phase 4 was a strange phase that just lucked identity and meaning .recent she hulk finale was just bizzare and felt so out of place.

[Liiviig 1998]

3 hours ago, cax16 said:

I don’t think ww84 is as hated as the internet makes you think it is. With that said, The third movie will have to be much better obviously and people will wait for reviews this time around where that probably wouldn’t of happened with ww84 cause of the good will from the first movie. 

Is it the worst cbm as some say. Not really . The movie was guilty pleasure for me . In terms of reception ,yeah it was pretty much hated. 

 

 

[Joyous Legion]

WW3 will be a good test 

[Porthos]

3 hours ago, Legion By Night said:

WW3 will be a good test 

 

[Joyous Legion]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

 

It’s a race between Patty and Putin

[CrashBandicoot81]

https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/lord-of-the-rings-fellowship-of-the-ring-nft-release-1235406247/

 

late to the party

Edited October 20, 2022 by CrashBandicoot81

[WittyUsername]

2 hours ago, CrashBandicoot81 said:

https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/lord-of-the-rings-fellowship-of-the-ring-nft-release-1235406247/

 

late to the party

Why are NFT’s still a thing?