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

[AJG]

New article from Matt Belloni (use reader view to bypass paywall).

https://puck.news/zaz-the-art-of-investor-maintenance/

 

Also if you doubt the thread title:

 

Quote

“I don’t really care what the number is,” David Zaslav said on his highly anticipated earnings call earlier this week. The now-embattled-ish Warner Bros. Discovery chief was referring to subscriber numbers for what will soon be, as has long been rumored, a unified HBO Max-Discovery+ streaming service (official name T.B.D.). A year ago, such a statement uttered from the lips of a Hollywood executive would have been blasphemous as Disney and then WarnerMedia and even Paramount+ vied to compete in the subscriber-measuring contest that Netflix routinized for Wall Street. Analysts’ obsession with Netflix, in particular, and top line subscriber growth, in general, had turned the metric into the holy grail. In fact, WBD had put forward a target—130 million by 2025—but Zaz, in a rather dispassionate and cold-hearted fashion, seemed to be disregarding it in order to get back to brass tacks: “We are not in the business of trying to pick up every sub,” he said. “We want to make sure we get paid.”

 

[HouseOfTheSun]

5 hours ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

I guess it's some stunt thing but the Keaton Batsuit looks a bit fake here?

 

It always had that heavy rubber look (still best on screen suit) but sheesh

Are you saying that there’s a real batsuit out there? 

[HouseOfTheSun]

8 minutes ago, AJG said:

New article from Matt Belloni (use reader view to bypass paywall).

https://puck.news/zaz-the-art-of-investor-maintenance/

 

Also if you doubt the thread title:

 

 

I really think most people are assuming the title is fake LOL 

[Potiki]

6 minutes ago, AJG said:

New article from Matt Belloni (use reader view to bypass paywall).

https://puck.news/zaz-the-art-of-investor-maintenance/

 

Also if you doubt the thread title:

 

 

These 2 paragraphs are probably the biggest concerns with Zaslav 

 

Quote

Presumably, these two strategies—cutting costs and growing topline revenue—can coexist, but only if the former doesn’t get in the way of the latter. Meanwhile, the risk inherent in Zaz’s merciless cost-cutting approach is that he’s scaring the shit out of the creative industry. In order to Marvel-ize DC, for instance, you need a Kevin Feige-level leader. In the wake of the Batgirl fiasco, the Marvel leader himself emailed the film’s directors to offer his condolences over the “disappointing news” and to tell them he was “very proud of you guys and all the amazing work you do”—thus throwing into sharp relief just how insensitive Zaz had been in his handling of the matter, and providing some early indications of how Disney intends to wage a talent-friendly hearts-and-minds land war with Warners. 

Quote

One critique of Zaslav’s pseudo-predecessor, the WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar, was that he had moved far too quickly in trying to position the company for an all-streaming future. The modern media business is all about planning for the future while optimizing the present, which Disney did elegantly under Bob Iger for years, and Kilar, as is his disposition, may have jumped the gun. The recent Netflix correction and skepticism about the true size of streaming’s total addressable market certainly suggest that he was moving faster than the consumers he was trying to serve. Nevertheless, Zaz’s posture of straddling the past and future will be problematic for its own reasons, and weigh heavily on the stock. Say what you will about Kilar, he was at least directionally correct.

 

Cutting costs and canceling projects hurting talent relations and being too reliant on linear, which still has nice upside for now but is in decline in terms of subs/viewership that has been subsidised by a strong ad market that is showing signs of slowing and will surely be impacted by Disney+/Netflix moving into advertising.

[Johnny Tran]

19 hours ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

I wanted the Batgirl movie

 

Was low budget trash bro.. come on.  The character deserves better than that. 

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

29 minutes ago, Johnny Tran said:

 

Was low budget trash bro.. come on.  The character deserves better than that. 

You haven't seen the movie

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

On 8/4/2022 at 3:31 PM, Legion By Night said:

Are we really about to use the pandemic to try to coverup macho’s complete lack of audience appeal? Zaslav was right on the mark with that one.

It's a Clint film and Clint usually has a reliable audience. It shouldn't have done worse than like 1517 To Paris. 40-50m range in normal times, probably. And Clint in an acting role has actual audience appeal. Since 2004, The Mule (103m), Trouble With the Curve (35m but bad reviews and he didn't direct), Gran Torino (148m), Million Dollar Baby (100.4m). 

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

There's some genuinely bad superhero movies out (especially now!).. I don't see why Batgirl would be some catastrophe. The real mistake was WB's mishandling of the DC brand and the overeagerness in bringing back Keaton. 

 

But seriously, you think Batgirl would be worse than Thor: Love and Thunder, Superpets, Morbius, Eternals, Hellboy, Green Lantern, Justice League, New Mutants, Fantastic 4 2015?

 

Between this and the canceled Joss Whedon version, I'm afraid the character is just doomed. And the same goes for Supergirl, exactly

[Fox20]

1 hour ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

There's some genuinely bad superhero movies out (especially now!).. I don't see why Batgirl would be some catastrophe. The real mistake was WB's mishandling of the DC brand and the overeagerness in bringing back Keaton. 

 

But seriously, you think Batgirl would be worse than Thor: Love and Thunder, Superpets, Morbius, Eternals, Hellboy, Green Lantern, Justice League, New Mutants, Fantastic 4 2015?

 

Between this and the canceled Joss Whedon version, I'm afraid the character is just doomed. And the same goes for Supergirl, exactly

I don't agree that it should been cancelled but It could be easily worse than some of your examples.

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

9 minutes ago, Fox20 said:

I don't agree that it should been cancelled but It could be easily worse than some of your examples.

I listed the worst reviewed superhero movies of recent times.

 

Therefore it would be the worst reviewed superhero movie in decades

 

So you think it could be easily worse than some of the worst of the genre?

[cax16]

Honestly don’t think the quality of Batgirl was an issue from what I was reading. It just sounds like a small scale lower stakes movie which would be perfect for a straight to streaming movie, but I guess that’s not what they want for the brand

so who knows. 

Edited August 6, 2022 by cax16

[WittyUsername]

2 minutes ago, cax16 said:

Honestly don’t think the quality of Batgirl was an issue from what I was reading. It just sounds like a small scale lower stakes movie which would be perfect for an a straight to streaming movie, but I guess that’s not what they want for the brand

so who knows. 

I also assume that Zaslav has no interest in making Michael Keaton the main Batman of the DCEU. I suspect the current plan is for Affleck to stay on. 

[cax16]

1 minute ago, WittyUsername said:

I also assume that Zaslav has no interest in making Michael Keaton the main Batman of the DCEU. I suspect the current plan is for Affleck to stay on. 

Ya I should of added that, I said it yesterday on here that I’d expect them to have a new Batman going forward for the dceu that isn’t Keaton. 
 

I think all the movies done filming now will have more added reshoots/post credit scenes to add in other elements for them to move their “plan” forward. 

Edited August 6, 2022 by cax16

[M37]

I’m sure this won’t be a popular opinion here, but after reading a fair amount about the goals and priorities moving forward, I kinda like the long term direction that’s been laid out? 

 

In the short term, there’s going to be a lot of cost cutting moves that won’t be popular with fans, but perhaps better to rip the band-aid off properly stitch up the wound than let it bleed out for a while

[Jonwo]

In regards to Clint Eastwood, realistically he doesn't have many films left in him and actually I wouldn't blame Zaslav or anyone for WB for wanting to look to the future and focus on newer talent. 

[NamakFiskKa]

20 hours ago, grim22 said:

 

Corporate presentations are put together at literally the last second with every single stakeholder wanting their pet project to be represented.

 

Whatever but just give a new Final Destination movie every 3 year.
 

How hard it is materialize that movie.

[dudalb]

11 hours ago, Jonwo said:

In regards to Clint Eastwood, realistically he doesn't have many films left in him and actually I wouldn't blame Zaslav or anyone for WB for wanting to look to the future and focus on newer talent. 

True, but he could have been a lot more diplomatic about it. It seems as though he was dissing Eastwood, and you it's a horrible look to do that to an American Icon.

And, yeah, this kind of thing is very important in the entertaknment business where image is very important.

[Potiki]

 

Once again fuck David Zaslav, we could have possibly had Nic Cage as Bizarro in some weird TV Show from Kevin Smith. 

[cax16]

I don’t know what this means for other shows (Batman spin-offs etc) but it sounds like all of Gunns projects are “safe” for now at least. Maybe they’re just moving the dc shows over to regular HBO, or maybe Zaslav cancels them all next month lol.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by cax16

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

I guess Gunn and Phillips are safe. Gunn seems more interested in TV stuff and Joker made a billion dollars and won Oscars. Both aren't "exactly" connected to overall DC anyway. I'd assume this means Reeves is safe but that stuff might be trickier since it's directly Batman

 

I'd say just make Gunn the DC Feige at this point, but I doubt he wants that