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Warner Bros. Discovery is one of the companies that has been mentioned the most in the media in recent months and it is not because of its big projects or because of the new plan to rescue the DCU, but because of all the problems that have been generated during its transition. business. The production company has lost billions and still has a huge debt that it must cover in the next few years or end up in bankruptcy. Between cancellations like those of Batgirlthe departure of Henry Cavill, the failure of Black Adam (52%), or the lack of confidence of investors and the public in general, David Zaslav He maintains his optimism and defends his decisions, assuring that the exclusive movies for HBO Max were a big mistake that did not contribute anything to the company and it was good to sell them.
Keep reading: The Flash: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Says Movie Is Wonderful
HBO Max brought its premiere forward to take advantage of the global pandemic crisis that was preventing people from going to commercial theaters and for movies to be released as planned. The decision was a big risk, but at the time it seemed the most appropriate considering there was no way to avoid box office losses for expected titles like Godzilla vs. Kong (85%) or Wonder Woman 1984 (76%). Although this caused a lot of controversy with creators like Christopher Nolan, who simply broke his alliance with the company, the public was relatively satisfied with seeing the releases in this way.
In an attempt to attract more subscribers, the executives at the time decided to launch exclusive movies and series for HBO Max, something that is nothing new among streaming services and is, in fact, one of the key pieces in the war between applications. It was thus that the public was finally able to enjoy Zack Snyder’s Justice League (82%), and that James Gunn made a place for himself with Peacemaker (86%) as a spin-off of The Suicide Squad (91%) . But we also had other projects away from the world of superheroes such as Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts (77%), Friends: The Reunion (76%), Locked Down (58%) and The Witches (45%).
The truth is that HBO Max was taking its first steps to establish this system and walter hamada intended to exploit it with DC movies that were created solely for the platform, such as Batgirl and Blue Beetle. When Discovery bought the company, David Zaslav He arrived to clean house and did not hesitate to cancel, fire, reorganize and even sell those original productions of the streaming service to third parties in an attempt to compensate for the economic losses. But the CEO of Warner assures that the movement has more to do with removing all those things that lack quality and do not raise the name of the production company.
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On more than one occasion, David Zaslav has defended the cancellation of Batgirl assuring that it was not good and that it did not contribute anything to the ambitious plans that he has for the company. This same comment now extends to those HBO Max original movies that he decided to sell to other services. According to The Wrapthe CEO mentioned in a recent company meeting that the productions of the platform had been a mistake and that they did not work at all:
We were able to see what content people are spending their time watching, what content is really powerful for us in terms of reducing churn, and then there was a lot of content that just wasn’t being viewed. And we were able in a lot of ways to look at the work that had been done, and that’s what led us to the conclusion that direct-to-stream movies really didn’t provide us with any value.
In addition to selling the films that already existed, and that are officially no longer on the platform, David Zaslav It also approved changing the premieres of certain titles to take them to commercial theaters, such as Magic Mike’s Last Dance (40%), which had been approved as an exclusive film for HBO Max. The CEO assures that his analysis indicates that the public prefers to go to the movies, so the streaming service should complement that experience and not replace it. While it was made clear earlier this year that the sweeping cancellations and changes had come to an end, it was recently revealed that Warner Bros. Discovery had lost millions in recent months, so it’s very possible that executives will follow a new plan to balance things.
don’t leave without reading: Warner Bros. Discovery lost $2.1 billion in the last quarter of 2022
