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

[WittyUsername]

3 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

 

It would have been Warner buying Paramount, and then eventually attempt to sell the combined company to Comcast or Apple or whoever. 

In other words, Zaslav was concerned that WB alone might not have been enticing enough for other companies to buy, so he considered merging the company with Paramount to juice it up more. Got it. 

[redfirebird2008]

1 minute ago, WittyUsername said:

In other words, Zaslav was concerned that WB alone might not have been enticing enough for other companies to buy, so he considered merging the company with Paramount to juice it up more. Got it. 

 

Yep, that's how it goes in the consolidation game. My company in the oil business did similar stuff. We acquired smaller companies, and eventually the executives cashed out by selling the whole thing to a much bigger company. They got a bunch of really fat stock options in their pockets as soon as the company got sold, which is exactly what Zaslav and his buddies are wanting to do.

[Barnack]

15 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

and eventually the executives cashed out by selling the whole thing to a much bigger company. They got a bunch of really fat stock options in their pockets as soon as the company got sold, which is exactly what Zaslav and his buddies are wanting to do.

Pretty much why stockholder give them those option (they loose their jobs usually, really good jobs, without those option they would not have took the decision that was good for the stockholder)

[HummingLemon496]

1 hour ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

Nah we good. Snyder bros talk about it all day every day on the bird app, completely disregarding the pandemic, day and date releases on Max and the Gunnverse announcement

You can remove Birds of Prey/WW84/TSS and the Shazam thorough Aquaman 2 average is only $287M. An improvement on $228M, sure, but still. . ."I improved my grade from a D- to a D+" energy

Edited February 27 by HummingLemon496

[HummingLemon496]

If Aquaman 2 broke even and made a profit, then assuming a $250M production budget, $150M marketing budget, and a 45/55 split without China, Deadpool 3 will only need ~$515M to break even (as long as it, and I quote "sells very well on digital"). 

 

Which is $110M less than the $625M break-even point I previously believed. 

 

 

 

Edited February 27 by HummingLemon496

[WittyUsername]

The decline of the DCEU films at the box office started with Shazam!, and only escalated from there. BoP came out a month before lockdowns, and its low OW numbers were a shock to pretty much everyone. 

 

All in all, I think the DCEU’s decline was a result of it not having any real sense of direction. There was no big event for people to get hyped about, and the movies themselves didn’t look exciting enough for the average moviegoer to rush to see them. It doesn’t help that they kept playing coy about the fact that Henry Cavill was fired because Toby Emmerich didn’t like the guy, and didn’t have any real concrete plan on how they were going to replace him. 

[HummingLemon496]

7 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

The decline of the DCEU films at the box office started with Shazam!, and only escalated from there. BoP came out a month before lockdowns, and its low OW numbers were a shock to pretty much everyone. 

 

All in all, I think the DCEU’s decline was a result of it not having any real sense of direction. There was no big event for people to get hyped about, and the movies themselves didn’t look exciting enough for the average moviegoer to rush to see them. It doesn’t help that they kept playing coy about the fact that Henry Cavill was fired because Toby Emmerich didn’t like the guy, and didn’t have any real concrete plan on how they were going to replace him. 

Even The Suicide Squad arguably performed poorly by pandemic standards. It did $55M domestic total. Another pandemic/day&date superhero movie around this time (Black Widow) did $63M in its first two days. There are some movies that, despite flopping, did well given the circumstances where you can assume they would have been a hit in normal times. The Suicide Squad, however, is not one of them, it would've flopped in normal times.

 

People are just insanely biased towards James Gunn, that's why people act like GOTG 3 is some insane smash hit even though it did less than Thor 4 excluding China. 

 

Wonder Woman 1984, however, is a VERY overrated film and actually did perform well given its release date (December 2020) and most likely would've been a solid hit in normal times. 

 

So really the only one that inarguably gets a pandemic asterisk is WW84, that movie definitely is profitable in a normal June 2020

Edited February 27 by HummingLemon496

[WittyUsername]

14 minutes ago, HummingLemon496 said:

Even The Suicide Squad arguably performed poorly by pandemic standards. It did $55M domestic total. Another pandemic/day&date superhero movie around this time (Black Widow) did $63M in its first two days. There are some movies that, despite flopping, did well given the circumstances where you can assume they would have been a hit in normal times. The Suicide Squad, however, is not one of them, it would've flopped in normal times.

 

People are just insanely biased towards James Gunn, that's why people act like GOTG 3 is some insane smash hit even though it did less than Thor 4 excluding China. 

 

Wonder Woman 1984, however, is a VERY overrated film and actually did perform well given its release date (December 2020) and most likely would've been a solid hit in normal times. 

 

So really the only one that inarguably gets a pandemic asterisk is WW84, that movie definitely is profitable in a normal June 2020

I can picture WW84 having a strong OW in a non-pandemic environment, but poor legs once word of mouth kicked in. 
 

As for TSS, yeah, I don’t think there’s any scenario where that movie would’ve performed well. Interest simply wasn’t there. GvK did significantly better than TSS, despite having come out at a worse point in the pandemic. 

Edited February 27 by WittyUsername

[HummingLemon496]

1 minute ago, WittyUsername said:

I can picture WW84 having a strong OW in a non-pandemic environment, but poor legs once word of mouth kicked in. As for TSS, yeah, I don’t think there’s any scenario where that movie would’ve performed well. 

But it has a 90% Rotten Tomatoes so therefore it didn't flop /s

 

 

Edited February 27 by HummingLemon496

[dudalb]

23 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

The decline of the DCEU films at the box office started with Shazam!, and only escalated from there. BoP came out a month before lockdowns, and its low OW numbers were a shock to pretty much everyone. 

 

All in all, I think the DCEU’s decline was a result of it not having any real sense of direction. There was no big event for people to get hyped about, and the movies themselves didn’t look exciting enough for the average moviegoer to rush to see them. It doesn’t help that they kept playing coy about the fact that Henry Cavill was fired because Toby Emmerich didn’t like the guy, and didn’t have any real concrete plan on how they were going to replace him. 

I think it started with what happened with Justice League...yes, you had a hit with Aquaman, but other then that how many hits did the DCU have post JL?

[dallas]

I don't recall anyone arguing that TSS isn't a flop or that it would do well under different conditions. Feels like targeted revisioning imo. 

[dudalb]

5 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

I can picture WW84 having a strong OW in a non-pandemic environment, but poor legs once word of mouth kicked in. 
 

As for TSS, yeah, I don’t think there’s any scenario where that movie would’ve performed well. Interest simply wasn’t there. GvK did significantly better than TSS, despite having come out at a worse point in the pandemic. 

That is my scenario for what would have happened. it wold have had a big opening weekend, but once WOM set it the legs would have been cut off.

The idea it would have been a huge blockbuster except for Covid just does not hold water when you  look at how the film was received.

[dudalb]

6 minutes ago, HummingLemon496 said:

But it has a 90% Rotten Tomatoes so therefore it didn't flop /s

 

 

I loved Gunn's SS, but it just plained flopped at the box office.

[SpiderByte]

The worst part is that of the realistic candidates Paramount was the (extremely relatively) least scary option. Of the major studios the last left is Universal, and of streamers it's Apple and Netflix.

[WittyUsername]

1 minute ago, SpiderByte said:

The worst part is that of the realistic candidates Paramount was the (extremely relatively) least scary option. Of the major studios the last left is Universal, and of streamers it's Apple and Netflix.

I doubt Netflix is going to buy WB. It’ll most likely come down between Comcast, Apple and maybe Amazon, although they did already buy MGM. 

[ChipDerby]

In regards to WW84, I'm in the camp that it would have had a much better reception had it released exclusively in theaters. I think the beginning of people watching things at home really hurt the film. Whereas if you're watching it in the theater, it's a spectacle and having a great time at the theater can mask over some minor issues. (yes it still would've been critiqued the way it was, but I doubt it would've been as immediate as it was)

 

TSS grossing what it did was a travesty. 

[SpiderByte]

2 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

I doubt Netflix is going to buy WB. It’ll most likely come down between Comcast, Apple and maybe Amazon, although they did already buy MGM. 

Too soon and expensive for Amazon after MGM. 

Netflix could do it if they want to have their cake and eat it too with theatrical 

Edited February 27 by SpiderByte

[Maggie]

If Apple/Netflix/Amazon buys Paramount, then it's over for theaters. We're gonna be left with, what, 2 big studios who release movies in theaters???

Edited February 27 by Maggie

[WittyUsername]

1 minute ago, SpiderByte said:

Too soon and expensive for Amazon after MGM. 

Netflix could do it if they want to have their cake and eat it too with theatrical 

I just can’t picture Netflix being willing to fork up the cash for something like that, and considering their general lack of interest in theaters, them buying a major studio would likely be met with a more significant backlash compared to the other potential buyers. If Amazon is out of the question, then I guess it’ll all come down to Comcast and Apple. 

[dudalb]

4 hours ago, lorddemaxus said:

I have feeling this merger didn't go through because WB now has eyes on a bigger merger

I think it is more that Warners simply did not have the money to spare to make a Merger work.

You really are overestmating how much money WB has to work with.