https://uproxx.com/movies/warner-bros-discovery-comcast-acquisition-nbcuniversal-david-zaslav/
QuoteFollowing the surprise cancellation of Batgirl, a film that by all accounts was mostly finished, the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery has been plagued with headlines about chaos behind the scenes as the new leadership struggles to cut costs while simultaneously rejuvenating brands like DC Comics. The studio has reportedly been searching for a Kevin Feige-type figure to do for DC what Feige does for Marvel, but the top candidate for the position, Dan Lin, has already bowed out.
At issue is the daunting task of righting a franchise that's been slowly rebuilding after the failure of 2017's Justice League. However, that process involved creating separate film universes for both Batman and Joker, and the whole thing is basically a huge mess. Especially when CEO David Zaslav wants a more connected DC Comics brand.
Adding even more uncertainty to the mix is talk of Warner Bros. Discovery being sold as quickly as possible. While the studio reportedly can't do anything until 2024, insiders believe that Comcast is waiting on the sidelines to swallow up the beleaguered entity. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
Given the company's daunting challenges, it has become accepted wisdom at the highest levels of the industry that another deal waits in the wings for Warner Bros. Discovery. For reasons related to the complicated structure of that merger, no negotiations can happen until April 2024. But at that point, many industry observers believe that Comcast's Brian Roberts will make a long-awaited move, looking to combine NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery.
That deal would face some interesting antitrust issues but would give his company scale and a viable streaming service. "Obviously Peacock sucks," says one exec with knowledge of both companies. "There are some good synergies. I'm sure [Roberts] is licking his chops because the [WBD] stock is so low. And I think that's Zaslav's endgame. Get the place sold."
When asked to comment on a potential sale, a WBD spokesperson simply told THR, "We are building Warner Bros. Discovery for the long term." That's not exactly a denial, so make of that what you will.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
If true, this does put a lot of Zaslav's actions into focus. He's basically Gordon Gecko, cannibalizing the company, selling off (or even giving away) losses while making short term plays to juice up the stock price. Corporate raider stuff.
Frankly, the entity known as WB is already heavily leveraged. Like, I'm not aware of any precedent for a big company like this to get sold off so many times in such a short period.
But there's some logic in Comcast buying them out. Universal is short on franchise IP's and their theme park division has the rights to Harry Potter. I don't see how Universal could do a worse job of managing the Potter brand than WB has in recent times.
My original estimation of Zaslav as a modern media wunderkind was evidently misplaced. He's trying to whip the company into some kind of shape so that it can be sold off. After that, he'll probably grab a golden parachute and glide into retirement.
EDIT- Comcast buying WBD could open the door rather conveniently to the rumored Tenet sequel. I'm not saying that's the only consideration going on here. But I could see where it would be a nice fringe benefit.
A few weeks ago, the state of Ohio reportedly sued WBD.
Quote
"Warner Bros. Discovery willfully withheld financial information that it was legally obligated to reveal for one highly self-serving reason – to ensure the merger's approval," [Ohio Attorney General Dave] Yost said. "In doing so, it created market distortions that cost Ohio's pension systems and other institutional investors dearly, and that is not OK."
At the time of the merger, the lawsuit says, WarnerMedia was in financial disarray and intentionally hid that fact from Discovery stockholders. The company, it turned out, had overinvested in costly but unproductive business lines, inflated its subscriber numbers by up to 10 million with no regard to margins, and otherwise provided false financial information to Discovery stockholders.
Had the true state of WarnerMedia's business been disclosed, the merger consideration would have been significantly higher for OPERS, STRS and other Discovery stockholders, says Yost.
WarnerMedia's financial challenges prompted Zaslav, the new CEO of the combined company, to disclose shortly after the merger that WBD would shut down many of its money-losing business lines, forcing the company to materially and negatively adjust its budget and financial expectations because they were wildly unrealistic.
https://www.wtrf.com/ohio/ohio-sues-warner-brothers-discovery/
A couple of articles I found should raise eyebrows.
WBD is currently $50 billion in debt as it continues to slash costs, jobs, and taxes.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-10-24/warner-bros-discovery-to-spend-1-billion-to-downsize#
Anti-Snyder/Cavill spiel aside, this other article has insiders giving details about the poor shape that WBD is in.
- Gunn and Safran only got the DC Studios job because "nobody else in Hollywood wanted it". They apparently begged Todd Phillips to take it, but he declined. The insider claims there is doubt among many industry people that Gunn is fit for the role because he lacks the experience to run a studio.
- Most importantly, it's speculated that if NBCUniversal buys out WBD, there is a chance that Gunn and Safran's ideas could be dropped anyway. WBD is described as "a cash-poor company being stripped to be sold" and the likelihood of another merger is very high, despite Zaslav saying otherwise.
https://web.archive.org/web/20221218001423/https://nypost.com/2022/12/15/dc-studios-was-actually-right-to-fire-superman-henry-cavill/
What a shambles.
I don't have much sympathy for corporations to begin with, and I certainly won't shed if - and when - WBD's nonsensical DC plans blow up in their faces. Not after their shocking U-turns with Cavill and Affleck.
There is a major flaw I find with this article about the reboot itself: if you are going to reboot, then make sure you actually start with a clean slate. Not when you have four movies coming out in the New Year. As I keep saying, those movies' box office theaters took a massive hit after the latest developments, and I still cannot comprehend how Safran - who is a producer on three out of four of those movies - would try to sabotage them. Well, the only way to fix the problem is to shelve all of them. Judging how WBD is cutting content as write-offs, it's not a bad idea at all.
The way the studio's financial situation is going, this Gunn reboot might die before it even begins. I, for one, hope so.
I think they should just hold off the universe and just focus on DC Black (where I think keaton would have fit better in anyways).
If Universal buys it, their attemps at shared universes die even quicker (plus they have Marvel IP theyre not even using). The way they treated "their" legacy characters have been pretty bad too. They seem to be stuck in the Scyfy budget circle.
Im also just tired of giant Monopolies and Dinsey is showing how bad of an idea that is. WB should be its own thing. I think comic book movies just need a rest and we need to go back to one or two every few years.
HeavySpoilers video on the current situation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQv4bq1HSos
Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon, 19 Dec 2022, 09:54
A couple of articles I found should raise eyebrows.
WBD is currently $50 billion in debt as it continues to slash costs, jobs, and taxes.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-10-24/warner-bros-discovery-to-spend-1-billion-to-downsize#
Anti-Snyder/Cavill spiel aside, this other article has insiders giving details about the poor shape that WBD is in.
- Gunn and Safran only got the DC Studios job because "nobody else in Hollywood wanted it". They apparently begged Todd Phillips to take it, but he declined. The insider claims there is doubt among many industry people that Gunn is fit for the role because he lacks the experience to run a studio.
- Most importantly, it's speculated that if NBCUniversal buys out WBD, there is a chance that Gunn and Safran's ideas could be dropped anyway. WBD is described as "a cash-poor company being stripped to be sold" and the likelihood of another merger is very high, despite Zaslav saying otherwise.
https://web.archive.org/web/20221218001423/https://nypost.com/2022/12/15/dc-studios-was-actually-right-to-fire-superman-henry-cavill/
What a shambles.
Yeah, I remember the NBCUniversal buyout of WBD chatter, and pretty much thought that the strategy with the DCEU going forward, would be that if we're going with the notion that Zack Snyder's vision was "Post-Crisis", the Zaslav/Gunn approach would be more "Post-Infinite Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint". Bringing the band back together so to speak (Henry, Ben, Gal), spending money to make money, and going with (as DC Comics did from about 2006-2011) a more Silver Age/Bronze Age influence but with modern sensibilities (admittedly the tone would probably come across like another Disney MCU clone, but hopefully with a lot less Whedon quips). Ideally these films would, ultimately, get the WBD stock back up, and if the end goal is to off load it,
then would be the time to do so.
QuoteI don't have much sympathy for corporations to begin with, and I certainly won't shed if - and when - WBD's nonsensical DC plans blow up in their faces. Not after their shocking U-turns with Cavill and Affleck.
There is a major flaw I find with this article about the reboot itself: if you are going to reboot, then make sure you actually start with a clean slate. Not when you have four movies coming out in the New Year. As I keep saying, those movies' box office theaters took a massive hit after the latest developments, and I still cannot comprehend how Safran - who is a producer on three out of four of those movies - would try to sabotage them. Well, the only way to fix the problem is to shelve all of them. Judging how WBD is cutting content as write-offs, it's not a bad idea at all.
The way the studio's financial situation is going, this Gunn reboot might die before it even begins. I, for one, hope so.
It is a .... odd strategy. These films are great, and we're going to make them better via rewrites, reshoots, and added scenes, right? Only, nah. Apparently. Just more sunken cost for films on a road that lead to absolutely no where. Such is the ever-so finicky nature of WBD. They can't even adhere to a 10 month plan, let alone a 10 year plan.
Quote from: eledoremassis02 on Mon, 19 Dec 2022, 17:18
I think they should just hold off the universe and just focus on DC Black (where I think keaton would have fit better in anyways).
Im also just tired of giant Monopolies and Dinsey is showing how bad of an idea that is. WB should be its own thing. I think comic book movies just need a rest and we need to go back to one or two every few years.
I agree with you about Keaton. It would've been far more exciting to see him returning in a Burtonverse project of some kind - whether it would've been Beyond or whatever - than get mixed with this fiasco going on with Flash and Batgirl.
I agree with you about corporate monopolies and comic book fatigue too. Even MCU die-hards are getting fed up with the movie overload nowadays, not to mention the shows on Disney+. It's overkill, and now it's rumoured Disney themselves want to cut down the content for Phase Five and Six.
Quote from: The Joker on Mon, 19 Dec 2022, 18:05
It is a .... odd strategy. These films are great, and we're going to make them better via rewrites, reshoots, and added scenes, right? Only, nah. Apparently. Just more sunken cost for films on a road that lead to absolutely no where. Such is the ever-so finicky nature of WBD. They can't even adhere to a 10 month plan, let alone a 10 year plan.
I just cannot comprehend the lack of logic behind their decisions lately. They have flushed money down the toilet, during a time when they have to make money in the short term. What happens if all four films bomb, won't that affect their bottom line and threaten their reboot plans? For argument's sake, what happens if, say, The Lost Kingdom becomes the second Aquaman film to become a box office? Are they seriously still going to kill off that franchise so Momoa can become Lobo, as it was heavily rumoured? That would be like Kevin Feige rebooting the MCU after The Winter Soldier and Chris Evans goes from playing Captain America to the Punisher.
It's utter nonsense. All it takes for something to go wrong, and their reboot talk will fall apart. It's only a matter of time.
Quote
Warner Bros Discovery weighs sale of music library to pare debt
Catalogue including Batman soundtracks could fetch more than $1bn for media group
https://www.ft.com/content/74fc28b8-0499-406e-95d1-a7b99f5e52e9?fbclid=IwAR2oVNdfXL3fEct_8e9mzkgPbrFaz54sxNSI8BaH9HdFInuNZJyK-Tdnr10
What are the odds they sell their IPs if their financial situation doesn't improve?
More legal trouble for WBD?
Quote
Lawmakers Want DOJ To Investigate Warner Bros Discovery Merger, Claiming It Harmed Workers And Reduced Content Choice; Cite Axed 'Batgirl' In Letter
Four Democratic lawmakers want the Justice Department to investigate Warner Bros Discovery, claiming that the merged company has harmed workers and reduced consumer choice.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-CA), Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter that the merger "appears to have enabled" the company to "adopt potentially anticompetitive practices that reduce consumer choice and harm workers in affected labor markets."
https://deadline.com/2023/04/warner-bros-discovery-antitrust-justice-department-elizabeth-warren-1235320218/
Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Sat, 8 Apr 2023, 04:13
More legal trouble for WBD?
Quote
Lawmakers Want DOJ To Investigate Warner Bros Discovery Merger, Claiming It Harmed Workers And Reduced Content Choice; Cite Axed 'Batgirl' In Letter
Four Democratic lawmakers want the Justice Department to investigate Warner Bros Discovery, claiming that the merged company has harmed workers and reduced consumer choice.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-CA), Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter that the merger "appears to have enabled" the company to "adopt potentially anticompetitive practices that reduce consumer choice and harm workers in affected labor markets."
https://deadline.com/2023/04/warner-bros-discovery-antitrust-justice-department-elizabeth-warren-1235320218/
It's hard to take that seriously. #1, everyone knows that "paying a fine" (government name, bribe) will make that all go away. #2, before things can even get to that point, the DOJ will have to admit it made mistake in approving the merger in the first place. And #3, my favorite part, the DOJ will then have to believe at an institutional level that movie studios don't have the right to not release a movie if they lose confidence in it.
Does that sound realistic to anyone?
While Hollywood is engulfed in a writers' strike, David Zaslav was criticised for his annual salary.
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/adam-conover-david-zaslav-cnn-interview-1235601743/
Zaslav said he hopes to find common ground where people are paid fairly, but then suggests "a love of working and business" could end the strike.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/warner-bros-discovery-writers-strike-david-zaslav-1235480523/
If he loves working and business so much, maybe he should give up some of his $250 million salary. After all, WBD needs to cut its debt as much as it can.
Speaking of debt, WBD reported another $1 billion loss in Q1:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4600931-warner-bros-discovery-not-entertained
This was reported a few weeks after Paramount filed a countersuit against WBD for owed money for streaming South Park episodes:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/south-park-lawsuit-warner-bros-discovery-paramount-counterclaim-1235589324/
Finally, God bless this chick:
(https://i.imgur.com/TS8YSsM.jpg)
Quote from: The Joker on Mon, 19 Dec 2022, 18:05Quote from: The Laughing Fish on Mon, 19 Dec 2022, 09:54QuoteI don't have much sympathy for corporations to begin with, and I certainly won't shed if - and when - WBD's nonsensical DC plans blow up in their faces. Not after their shocking U-turns with Cavill and Affleck.
There is a major flaw I find with this article about the reboot itself: if you are going to reboot, then make sure you actually start with a clean slate. Not when you have four movies coming out in the New Year. As I keep saying, those movies' box office theaters took a massive hit after the latest developments, and I still cannot comprehend how Safran - who is a producer on three out of four of those movies - would try to sabotage them. Well, the only way to fix the problem is to shelve all of them. Judging how WBD is cutting content as write-offs, it's not a bad idea at all.
The way the studio's financial situation is going, this Gunn reboot might die before it even begins. I, for one, hope so.
It is a .... odd strategy. These films are great, and we're going to make them better via rewrites, reshoots, and added scenes, right? Only, nah. Apparently. Just more sunken cost for films on a road that lead to absolutely no where. Such is the ever-so finicky nature of WBD. They can't even adhere to a 10 month plan, let alone a 10 year plan.
I have to revisit this again.
That BRAINDEAD, self-sabotaging decision to announce a reboot before the last four movies were coming out will go down as one of - if not - the WORST decision in Hollywood history. And that's saying a lot, but when you take WBD's debt troubles into account, that claim is justified.
Sure, the films may not be very good. Yes, there were other external factors that contributed to the bad PR, e.g. Ezra Miller. But you don't have to be a box office expert to realise these films were always going to be handicapped by this awful attempt at a reboot and the timing of its announcement. So far, the results have been unsurprisingly disastrous. This is what happens when you alienate everyone: from fans to actors to directors.
And to make matters worse, WBD are reportedly still pumping more money into reshoots for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Even though they're bleeding so much cash to the point they're trying to sell off their film and TV soundtrack catalog to try to reduce their $49 billion debt.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dbloom/2023/06/23/purple-rain-batman-among-film-music-rights-possibly-on-block-as-debt-laden-wbd-seeks-more-cash/?sh=398c5f6d5e81
Insanity.
Gunn went on record already saying Flash was supposed to reset the timeline, but now he's saying Blue Beetle is the "official start" of his DCU. This screams like moving the goalposts to me. Blue Beetle was originally meant to be an HBO Max exclusive, with a modest budget like Batgirl had, not to mention it was supposed to be in Hamada's post-Flashpoint timeline. Now that film will be facing a lot of pressure it wasn't meant to have, and by the looks of it, it's a typically generic movie as it gets. And it seems people are getting tired of that formula, with some exceptions.
Then there's issue with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Bloggers and scoopers have been saying the test screenings have been awful, and the film has already undergone so many reshoots. Why bother spending more money on it if you're planning to kill off the franchise anyway, so Momoa can become Lobo?
I can't believe the mismanagement at WBD. Zaslav, along with Gunn and Safran, should be removed for their negligence. I'd say more, but I'll just simply share this disgruntled fans' thoughts on the whole fiasco.
https://youtu.be/_LHviCDZr94
David Zaslav was upset over a GQ article that heavily criticised his leadership of WBD, so he had the publication remove it.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-07-06/gq-removed-its-article-warner-bros-discovery-ceo-david-zaslav
It turns out the GQ editor is supposed to produce a film for WBD.
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/gq-editor-david-zaslav-story-producing-movie-warner-bros-1235662109/
This goddamn company and the constant revolving door of sh*tty executives. Zaslav has proven to be no better than Emmerich. In many ways, he's perhaps even worse.
A new Looney Tunes movie that was starring John Cena and co-written and co-produced by James Gunn has been SHELVED:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/john-cena-coyote-vs-acme-movie-shelved-1235643235/
I have no sympathy for Gunn, I'm glad he got the Batgirl treatment. This is why you can't take trust WBD, and why I have great doubts that any of these DCU announcements will get off the ground.
WBD has now supposedly reversed their decision to shelve Coyote vs. Acme, and will give the directors the chance to sell the film to another buyer. They allegedly caved because directors in the industry threatened to boycott.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/coyote-vs-acme-wb-warners-canceled-reversal-shop-film-1235645372/
I thought you couldn't sell a product once you wrote it off. Either the studio hadn't done so yet at the time of the announcement...or this was a cynical marketing ploy to generate hype for the movie, and the aggrieved directors and producers were in on it. There was already talk about other rival streaming services were offering WBD to buy the film beforehand, but Warners said no.
Whatever it is, you have to wonder whether or not WBD are bleeding THAT much money to not being able to afford to distribute the film themselves. On the other hand, it could be that Zaslav is stripping the whole studio to parts to make it cheaper for a sale. Which I don't understand the logic behind it personally, but I notice it's a popular guess online.
Furthermore, any creative person should stay the f*** away from that mess of a studio. One PR debacle to another.
A politician suggests the Federal Trade Commission needs to look into WBD's conduct.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/democratic-rep-calls-federal-probe-002659283.html
Not the first time a politician wants to put the whole company under the spotlight. Well, the government definitely made a huge mistake for approving this merger.
How convenient that DC Studios announced an inexperienced writer to helm the Supergirl project. Rather strange timing. After the HBO chief of programming admitted to using bots to troll critics for writing unflattering reviews of his shows, who's to say this Supergirl news isn't an attempt to distract everyone from the negative publicity? Anything is possible with this damn company.
BTAS alum Tom Ruegger has declared that David Zaslav should be fired:
QuoteWarner Bros./Discovery's most recent earnings report, in early November, was met with one of the biggest single-day sell-offs in WB/D's short history. THE STOCK HAS NOW LOST HALF ITS VALUE SINCE ZASLAV TOOK CHARGE. This guy is an unmitigated disaster. He needs to be sent packing.
https://twitter.com/tomruegger/status/1725071430403207662
QuoteZaslav made some headlines for the wrong reasons again the other day for justifying "overpaying" the writers to end their strike, despite the absurd amount of money he makes. This third of the article sums up the mess debacle surrounding him and WBD:
Zaslav's 2022 comp package set as $39.3 million, only $8 million short of the entire increased expenditure. He didn't actually reach that number — Zaz's realized pay last year was $27.2 million — but he was supposed to! Either way, one individual gobbled up much of what an entire union wanted for all of its members working for his company.
(Zaslav infamously was set up with $246 million comp package in 2021, ahead of the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger, with $203 million coming from stock options tied to closing the deal. The headline number also proved overinflated — Zaslav realized $69.6 million that year.)
Zaslav's comp package is not an outlier in Hollywood, or even among his fellow strike negotiators. Netflix's co-CEO Ted Sarandos is at $50 million; Bob Iger is expected to earn up to $27 million this year. However, it hits different when you consider the devaluation of Warner Bros. Discovery under Zaslav's leadership. WBD stock has lost half its value since the April 2022 merger, and a huge selloff occurred after the earnings call earlier this month. While Warner Bros. Discovery has done an admirable job to pay down debt — paying off $12 billion — it still has $44.5 billion of debt to go.
None of this accounts for the intangible of creatives feeling burned by deleting "Batgirl" and "Scoob! Holiday Haunt," by instituting mass layoffs at Turner Classic Movies (a couple of the top execs were rehired following backlash), and most recently by pulling the plug on Dave Green's John Cena starrer "Coyote vs. Acme." After that backlash, Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to at least attempt to shop the film to other distributors to release.
To work in Hollywood is to work in the business of creativity. Right now, the only thing that feels creative in WBD's approach is finding new ways to burn bridges.
https://www.indiewire.com/news/analysis/david-zaslav-overpaying-writers-post-strike-1234926590/
If Hollywood is run on egos, you still have to build and maintain relationships. What good is it to suck up to these suits, if you're a director, when you're constantly worried of being stabbed in the back? The AMPTP has shown how ugly they are during this year's strikes, but Zaslav's greed takes to a whole new level. Only Bob Iger from Disney matches Zaslav in terms of insensitivity.