Tag: AT&T

Posted on in Film News

WarnerMedia’s Hybrid Release Model Shaping Up To Become A $1 Billion Loss – Called A “Major Misstep”

In December, WarnerMedia announced plans to release all of their 2021 slate in theaters and on their streaming service HBO Max (free for one month with subscription) on the same day, the hybrid release model was controversial and led to reports of their partner Legendary Entertainment gearing-up for a lawsuit. Legendary attempted to sell-off Godzilla Vs. Kong to Netflix for a massive $200 million but Warner Bros. blocked the deal only to announce they would be giving the film away to HBO Max subscribers for free. Directors Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve also were vocally upset that directors weren’t properly informed about the move and mentioned how harmful the hybrid release would be to the industry.

The plan seemed to be sacrifice the Warner Bros. Pictures slate to coax a boost in domestic subscriber numbers for the floundering HBO Max that launched last year, however, the numbers haven’t been stellar in comparison to other streaming competitors.

It’s now May, and it was recently announced there would be a WarnerMedia-Discovery merger with rumblings from business news outlets that WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar was kept in the dark about the deal and is getting ready to exit. There is also chatter that the merger could signal an easier sale of WarnerMedia in the future, however, no potential buyers have been mentioned.

New information suggests that the hybrid release model at Kilar’s direction wasn’t as lucrative as hyped-up to be, mentioned in an Variety report they state industry sources believe the hybrid model may end up a billion-dollar loss due to high license feeds paid and sluggish subscriber sign-up.

Moreover, industry sources say the strategic move that made such a splash last December — when WarnerMedia at Kilar’s direction opted for simultaneous releases in theaters and on HBO Max for Warner Bros.’ 2021 movie slate — is seen as a major misstep because it is shaping up to cost the studio over $1 billion in lost box office revenue, talent profit participation payments and in high license fees paid for the movies from HBO Max. Unless the pace of HBO Max subscriber additions pick up significantly in the coming months, the high cost of the movie content for the streamer will be hard to justify.

While WarnerMedia insists that other films such as Dune are still sticking to the hybrid release in October, there have been conflicting trade reports that we could see exclusive theatrical windows return before 2022.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in News

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar Reportedly Exiting After Being Kept In The Dark About Merger

A little over a year after being hired by AT&T CEO John Stankey to run WarnerMedia, Jason Kilar is looking for the exit, according to a report from The New York Times. Stankey announced that Discovery and WarnerMedia would be merging in a shocking media announcement today while avoiding multiple questions about Kilar’s future role at the company.

Jason Kilar has hired a legal team to negotiate his departure as chief executive of WarnerMedia, according to two people briefed on the matter. AT&T, which owns WarnerMedia, said on Monday that it had agreed to spin off the division and merge it with a rival media company, Discovery Inc. Mr. Kilar was kept in the dark about the deal until recent days, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

This comes after subscribers for their HBO Max service seemingly wasn’t doing as great as other competitors and WarnerMedia sacrificed hefty budgeted blockbusters to hand-out a free month of access to new releases on HBO Max as part of their controversial day-and-date release model. There were also reports like the one at Bloomberg that Kilar was earning more than his boss at AT&T, another controversy as most studios were hemorrhaging money last year making the pay-bump a bit ridiculous.

While speaking on CNBC, business journalist Kara Swisher had more dire perspective on the news saying that John Stankey is simply wasting shareholder money trying to catch-up with mega-streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. It should be noted this is simply an opinion but this is also coming from someone with years of experience covering these kinds of stories.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

Posted on in Film News

Christopher Nolan Unlikely To Work With Warner Bros. In The Future

A new report from The Wall Street Journal (spotted by The Playlist) is claiming that Warner Bros. golden-child director Christopher Nolan is now “unlikely” to make future films at the studio due to their decision to embrace a new day-and-date release model that is meant to boost subscriptions to HBO Max on the backs of the film division and filmmakers. This wouldn’t be terribly surprising as Christopher Nolan has been vocal against this release model since it’s announcement caught most directors it affected off guard and almost led to a potential lawsuit from production partner Legendary Entertainment.

The filmmaker made his opinions widely known in various interviews including the following quote from The Hollywood Reporter.

NOLAN: “Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service. Warner Bros. had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere, both in theaters and in the home, and they are dismantling it as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense, and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”

Dune director Denis Villeneuve also made a similar plea to the studio in an op-ed at The Hollywood Reporter, suggesting the studio could be killing the Dune franchise.

This would be the first time in twenty years that Nolan had a movie that wasn’t made for Warner Bros. or distributed by them since 2001’s Memento. The filmmaker is one of the few people that can convince a studio to give him a blockbuster-level budget to make original films as seen with Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and last summer’s Tenet.

Here is a rundown of the global box office earnings of the Warner Bros. films made by Christopher Nolan over the years.

  • INSOMNIA (2002) – $113.7 Million
  • BATMAN BEGINS (2004) – $373.6 Million
  • THE PRESTIGE (2006) – $109.6 Million
  • THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) – $1 Billion
  • INCEPTION (2010) – $836.8 Million
  • THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012) – $1.08 Billion
  • INTERSTELLAR (2014) – $701.7 Million
  • DUNKIRK (2017) – $526.9 Million
  • TENET (2020) – $363.1 Million

If Nolan ultimately exits the studio this could be a huge loss for Warner Bros. and a sign of more creative fallout from WarnerMedia/AT&T’s new day-and-date model. The model sees WarnerMedia adding a bulk of their 2021 theatrical releases to their struggling streaming service HBO Max exclusively for a month at the same time the film is being released domestically in theaters, having HBO Max and theaters going head-to-head for audiences.

AT&T CEO John Stankey had previously alluded to The Washington Post in an interview, that this is likely going to be a release model they’ll be using beyond 2021 and the pandemic giving the impression they wouldn’t be turning back to regular release windows that gave theaters a proper amount of time to earn money.

STANKEY: “In March, we unleashed a new normal in society. That horse left the barn. I don’t think any of us are going to change that dynamic.”

Nolan could stick around at Warner Bros. if they change their minds on the release model or more likely he could easily find a home at another studio. I don’t think he’d have much trouble getting the same deal elsewhere given his track record.

SOURCE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Posted on in Film News

AT&T CEO Suggests New Release Model For WB Films Will Extend Beyond 2021

Yesterday, WarnerMedia announced that they would be releasing their 2021 slate with a new day-and-date model releasing their films the same day on HBO Max (for one month) and theatrically. Those 17 films will include The Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah, Tom & Jerry, Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, In The Heights, Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad, Reminiscence, Malignant, Dune, The Many Saints of Newark, King Richard, Cry Macho, and Matrix 4.

While speaking with Deadline, WarnerMedia’s Jason Kilar dodged their question about what 2022 would look like moving forward.

KILNAR: “As to what the world looks like after 2021, I have no grand proclamations to make. Our focus, candidly, is on the here and now. We’re focused on getting through this pandemic like any business is, and we’re putting a lot of brain cells against what the right thing is to do to serve fans and to serve partners and to server ourselves. And all those things are important to do and that’s what our focus is, obviously that is what we announced today.”

However, AT&T CEO John Stankey seemingly jumped into future when asked by The Washington Post if they’d return to normal business practices including severing the day-and-date model they announced yesterday once the pandemic recedes. Stating the following which sounds a lot like they’re keen to keep this model.

STANKEY: “In March, we unleashed a new normal in society. That horse left the barn. I don’t think any of us are going to change that dynamic.”

Stankey did highlight the importance of movie theaters but didn’t really go into extensive detail what that relationship will look like post-pandemic. It’ll be interesting to see the reactions of domestic theaters who are going to be the most impacted if this model becomes a permanent thing as they’ll be in direct competition with HBO Max (a domestic streaming service).

You can watch that exchange below they start talking about the announcement around the 43 minute mark.

It was also mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter that WarnerMedia partners like Legendary Entertainment weren’t even told about the day-and-date model prior to the announcement and were just as blindsided as theaters. Legendary is behind WB’s massive upcoming releases such as Dune and Godzilla vs Kong.

SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST