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

[dudalb]

21 hours ago, Human said:

James Gunn was highly involved in making Coyote vs Acme, and I doubt he is laughing at financial struggles WB is having right now.

Of course not, Warners does badly it means less funding for DC studios.

[dudalb]

On 8/7/2024 at 1:50 PM, WittyUsername said:

Seems like going all in on streaming has bitten both WB and Paramount in the butt. 

Yeash, the have done poor jobs of managing their streaming, but if you think streaming is going away you have another thing coming.

wB probabl spent too much on streming product.

[dudalb]

On 8/7/2024 at 2:56 PM, Reddroast said:

If I'm Bob Iger I would do something really funny now

Problem is Iger probably does not wanr to add more debt to Disney right now. Particulary since adding too much debt is what got Warners into the situation it is in.

Also, it might trigger anti trust problems for Disney.

[dudalb]

23 hours ago, filmnerdjamie said:

 

Which falls on deaf ears.

 

It's insane how badly AT&T/Kilar fucked WB up and then walked off leaving this mess for Discovery/Zaslav to clean up... and how many have seemingly forgotten all this.

Question is how well Zaslev is handling it. And he seems not to be handling it well.

 I agree previous managment is what got WB into this mess, and a lot of people here forget that. SOme have tried to blame all of WB's problems on Zaslev, which is stupid.

But he was brought in to fix the situation, and he seems to not be doing a good job of doing that. I gave the benefit of the doubt when he came on baord, and wrote off some of his early actions as necessary; even if the cancellations of some projects pissed off the fanboys, but I am past that. Zaslev is not doing the job he was hired to do.

Even if you write off the fanboy hatred becasue Zaslev cancelled some shows the hardcore geeks liked ( but the GA did not) Zaslev has not performed  very well. WB should be doing better then it is.

[keysersoze123]

23 minutes ago, dudalb said:

Question is how well Zaslev is handling it. And he seems not to be handling it well.

 I agree previous managment is what got WB into this mess, and a lot of people here forget that. SOme have tried to blame all of WB's problems on Zaslev, which is stupid.

But he was brought in to fix the situation, and he seems to not be doing a good job of doing that. I gave the benefit of the doubt when he came on baord, and wrote off some of his early actions as necessary; even if the cancellations of some projects pissed off the fanboys, but I am past that. Zaslev is not doing the job he was hired to do.

Even if you write off the fanboy hatred becasue Zaslev cancelled some shows the hardcore geeks liked ( but the GA did not) Zaslev has not performed  very well. WB should be doing better then it is.

Zaslav's incentives were also short term focused. His incentives were linked to short term FCF metrics. So his actions were driven to maximize that so that he is paid well. There was nothing long term about his actions. His goal is to improve financials and then sell to the highest bidder. But I am not convinced regulators will allow Comcast to buy WBD. 

[ZattMurdock]

32 minutes ago, keysersoze123 said:

Zaslav's incentives were also short term focused. His incentives were linked to short term FCF metrics. So his actions were driven to maximize that so that he is paid well. There was nothing long term about his actions. His goal is to improve financials and then sell to the highest bidder. But I am not convinced regulators will allow Comcast to buy WBD. 

That’s precisely how I see it. Here is the catch:

 

I think that the original plan was what Keyser just said with the catch that it wasn’t about selling the D part of the equation, only the WB part of it. That’s why Max is a thing and not called HBO, WB or whatever. With that said, I don’t think the tea leaves indicate that they are planing for a WB wholesale, it will be sold for parts. So what we could see here as the outcome: CNN, WB Studios, Looney Tunes and DC Comics being sold for parts. That would be easier for regulators to approve, since I don’t see a turn around on this spiraling out of control.

[ZattMurdock]

 

[WittyUsername]

 

[El Squibbonator]

Down we go, down and down.

[dudalb]

4 hours ago, WittyUsername said:

 

Not very subtle, is he?

He is going to find out that one of the hardest things in show biz is to convince people to pay for somehting they previusly got for free. He will get few new subscribers to Max and a lot of ill will by the general public.

I would not be surprised if the loss of advertising revenue from the CN is far greater then the money he gets from new subscribers to MAX.

Zaslev is convinced he can shove anything down the public's throat and they will accept it. He is going to find out otherwise.

I was skeptical about the theories he is trying to destroy Warners to sell off the individual parts, i put his mistakes down to being new to running a studio, but I am coming around to his being a wrecker.

Be interesting to see how his fanboys here defend his latest crap.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first, because when a company is in deep debt problems you have to take some pretty brutal actions to stop the bleeding..some thing a lot of people here did not get...but I am though giving him the benefit of hte doubt.  He is the kind of guy who, sady, give Capitalism a bad name.

Edited August 9 by dudalb

[El Squibbonator]

Strangely, the Adult Swim website is still up.

[dudalb]

16 minutes ago, El Squibbonator said:

Strangely, the Adult Swim website is still up.

For how long?

Maybe there are some contracual obligations with Adult Swin that make it impossible for Zaslev to pull it right now.

[El Squibbonator]

I don’t know how long, but Adult Swim has been weathering the proverbial storm remarkably well. In fact, they’ve actually had their time slots expanded. They’ve had multiple shows greenlit or renewed, including some I didn’t expect like Primal, My Adventures With Superman and Smiling Friends.

 

It’s almost as if they’re the one part of the company Zaslav can’t damage. Either that, or he has some inexplicable attachment to Adult Swim that makes him more lenient towards them.

Edited August 9 by El Squibbonator

[dudalb]

8 minutes ago, El Squibbonator said:

I don’t know how long, but Adult Swim has been weathering the proverbial storm remarkably well. In fact, they’ve actually had their time slots expanded. They’ve had multiple shows greenlit or renewed, including some I didn’t expect like Primal, My Adventures With Superman and Smiling Friends.

 

It’s almost as if they’re the one part of the company Zaslav can’t damage. Either that, or he has some inexplicable attachment to Adult Swim that makes him more lenient towards them.

Or maybe there are some legal issues that make it hard for Zaslev to pull the show from cable.

[dudalb]

Real problem Warners has with that nine billion dollar loss is that all the profits from their 2024 theatrical movies just got drowned in red ink, producing nothing for the stockholders earnings.

[El Squibbonator]

This is just more pressure on James Gunn’s Superman movie, isn’t it?

Edited August 9 by El Squibbonator

[robertman2]

2 hours ago, El Squibbonator said:

I don’t know how long, but Adult Swim has been weathering the proverbial storm remarkably well. In fact, they’ve actually had their time slots expanded. They’ve had multiple shows greenlit or renewed, including some I didn’t expect like Primal, My Adventures With Superman and Smiling Friends.

 

It’s almost as if they’re the one part of the company Zaslav can’t damage. Either that, or he has some inexplicable attachment to Adult Swim that makes him more lenient towards them.

Ngl not renewing Smiling Friends would have been the most baffling move to come out of WB tbh!

[AJG]

4 hours ago, dudalb said:

Not very subtle, is he?

He is going to find out that one of the hardest things in show biz is to convince people to pay for somehting they previusly got for free. He will get few new subscribers to Max and a lot of ill will by the general public.

I would not be surprised if the loss of advertising revenue from the CN is far greater then the money he gets from new subscribers to MAX.

Zaslev is convinced he can shove anything down the public's throat and they will accept it. He is going to find out otherwise.

I was skeptical about the theories he is trying to destroy Warners to sell off the individual parts, i put his mistakes down to being new to running a studio, but I am coming around to his being a wrecker.

Be interesting to see how his fanboys here defend his latest crap.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first, because when a company is in deep debt problems you have to take some pretty brutal actions to stop the bleeding..some thing a lot of people here did not get...but I am though giving him the benefit of hte doubt.  He is the kind of guy who, sady, give Capitalism a bad name.

Cartoon Network lost around 90% of its audience in the last 10 years.
 

It’s 2024, I promise you children don’t care that the website for a TV channel they don’t watch (because kids do NOT watch cable TV) has been taken offline.

Edited August 10 by AJG

[ZattMurdock]

5 hours ago, El Squibbonator said:

This is just more pressure on James Gunn’s Superman movie, isn’t it?

Superman or the DCU can’t save WBD, nothing can save them. Zaslav’s mission was always to try and hold until a Universal’s buyout. I don’t think that would fly with regulators so it’s likely being sold for parts. Where the DCU will land is a different question. 
 

IF Disney ever buys DC, and that’s still a major pie in the sky IF, what I would like is to yeah, have the Marvel vs. DC crossover in my lifetime, have fun with that all you want, but keep them as different universes.

[WorkingonaName]

The DCU will fail, Should have just gone all in on Batman/Joker style films. 

Edited August 10 by WorkingonaName