Warner Media/Discovery joint venture; thoughts and discussion

Imma need context?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Y2inDxt4M

This pretty much says "Your show will be killed to make way for trashy reality shows."

David Zaslav's courting of Middle America and reality shows would never not be infuriating.

Thing Zaslov doesn't realize he's screwing with is that people don't get into show business just for the money. They really want to see their work out there on the big screen. And shelving productions is the opposite of that. Who's going to work for WB if their work might never be seen?

Joaquin Castro (The Texas congressman who spoke about WB’s treatment of their movies in the past), tweeted that he’s written to the DOJ and the FTC about this latest Coyote Vs Acme nonsense. Like how a history of zazlaving films should be considered in allowing/blocking future mergers. Which is good news for those of us not wanting to see WB buy Paramount or be bought by Universal.

https://x.com/joaquincastrotx/status/1756190120334545302?s=46&t=7YT7yMPCw2VMMwQUxWj5_A

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 10th 2024 at 1:29:16 PM

Screw WBD, FTC's doing that's right!

I would very much love to see Zaslav investigated for committing possible tax fraud. Idiot needs to be knocked down a few pegs.

I really do wonder what was the opinion agreed here that David Zaslav is a great ceo who justifies his position when the stock price (if I remember) of wbd was halved from 2022 to 2023 when I looked up. Then this happens and we're all calling Dave the devil of Hollywood.

I would like a great Superman movie but I cant support jack from this studio willingly

I took a look at WBD stock price history. What happened between December 2022 and Feb 2023 that caused WBD's stock to increase from 9.48 USD to 15.42 USD?

Only thing noteworthy around the holidays movie-wise were the releases of Wonka and Aquaman 2. Then around January Barbie won 2 awards at the Golden Globes and it was nominated for Best Picture for this upcoming Oscar though I don't know if award nominations would have an effect on stock prices. As for tv and animation, I'm not caught up on WBD to know what they've been doing on those fronts.

That's 2023-2024. I was talking about 2022-2023

Oh ok. Movie-wise, there's nothing noteworthy in WBD's releases between Dec 2022 to Feb 2023 unless you count Magic Mike 3 as noteworthy and the closest big budget movie to that timeframe was Black Adam at around Oct 2022. And I highly doubt Velma moved the needle when it debuted on Jan 2023.

Never mind. This post. There was a bad translation in the article.

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 12th 2024 at 6:59:02 AM

Just had a horrifying thought.

If Zaslav is trying to channel Bialystock and Bloom, does that mean he technically got more money from The Flash bombing than he would have if it was somehow a hit?

Or that's not how it works?

Depends on what kind of tax law is he using.

In The Producers, it's overselling the shares to their investors and raising more money than needed to actually making the show. Once the show bombs, nobody, including IRS, would start looking into the money not spent because they assume it's all gone from the spending.

Of course, if the play was a hit, then they'll have to payback all their investors of the profits they made... which is impossible because what they promised to pay back is over 100% of the money made overall. And thus, the IRS will investigate this fraud.

This is from last year during the writers strike, but I just now happened upon it, and found it amusing. David Zaslav attempts to give a speech at a graduation ceremony, and gets drowned out by the audience chanting "Pay your writers!"

Edited by Brandon on Feb 13th 2024 at 2:17:52 AM

Indie Wire has a look into the accounting behind the decision not to release Coyote Vs Acme.

https://www.indiewire.com/news/analysis/coyote-vs-acme-write-off-anticompetitive-1234953523/

The King has some words about another movie WB's holding up:

Edited by CursedBarney on Feb 20th 2024 at 6:43:06 AM

Deadline has a full article on the subject:

https://deadline.com/2024/02/salems-lot-stephen-king-calls-out-warner-bros-1235832374/

On the plus side, Mickey 17 s still happening… just in January of next year. Deadline also has the article:

https://deadline.com/2024/02/mickey-17-bong-joon-ho-robert-pattinson-1235832410/

And here’s Variety’s thoughts on WB’s spending and how they might be preparing for another sale or merger.

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/warner-bros-spending-joker-2-budget-tom-cruise-deal-1235917640/

UPDATE: Deadline has a summary of the WB earnings call this morning. Investors were disappointed by the lack of quantitative commitment and financial guidance.

https://deadline.com/2024/02/warner-bros-discoverys-stock-tumbles-lack-of-2024-guidance-1235835369/

And as mentioned on other threads, no discussion of Coyote Vs Acme.

UPDATE:

Hollywood Reporter is saying WB took $115 Million on tax write downs. It isn’t clear if Coyote Vs Acme was among those projects, however.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/coyote-vs-acme-warner-bros-discovery-115m-write-down-mystery-projects-1235832120/

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 23rd 2024 at 8:38:28 AM

Bumping with news from CNBC: WB is scuttling plans to buy paramount.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/27/warner-bros-discovery-halts-paramount-global-merger-talks.html

Whaaaaaat? The company that refuses to release anything to prevent their massive financial losses can't just up and buy another major studio? I am shocked, shocked! Well, maybe not that shocked.

its so dumb to do, I legit think they will pursue it

I guess the statements on them not buying awhile ago was a lie if merger talks were there. Zaslav is failing upwards and I can smell the money fishes

Edited by M1gamiTensei on Feb 27th 2024 at 11:21:31 AM

Apparently Zaslav got into some heat with Congress last month for funding a documentary for Chinese propaganda peddlers CGTN via Discovery and he had until today to answer Congress' questions about it.

So if he hasn't responded by now…they might try him for tax fraud?

The person who thought "NO ONE sets out to piss off as many people as possible" never knew the name DAVID ZASLAV.

cant be bothered to see one complete movie, I dont think he thinks Congress is worth his time either