Hey, I'm just not ignoring the actual numbers here.
And again, it's not just Zaslav. It's all of WBD's executives and investors. There's a deeper problem with WBD besides just one asshole.
It's not even just WBD either. Like I said, studios just lack faith in full length animated features these days.
Edit:
It also doesn't help that there are even more obstacles to theatrical success these days. Theater attendance is still not as high as it was prior to the pandemic. Not to mention streaming is also cannibalizing movie performance. Disney Plus for example is a big part of why Disney and MCU movies aren't doing as well.
Edited by M84 on Mar 20th 2024 at 12:34:49 AM
Disgusted, but not surprised![]()
It's not about being on Zaslav's side, it's about not blaming everything bad that happens on one (of a dozen) execs like he's the literal devil.
He's just an employee. If the board pushed him out tomorrow, whoever they replaced him with wouldn't be much better, because there's no indication Zaslav isn't doing what a bunch of other people want him to do.
How much of a fanbase do Looney Toons have? The premise doesn't sound that interesting, even if they did something good with it. Who is even the target audience, kids or adults? Compare that to the Flash, which was a superhero movie. Canning Cv A sounds like it might have been the best business decision.
That's not how the people in charge of a company are going to see it.
You and I remember Budapest very differently
The Scrappy of the Trope Pantheon, God of Thumps
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Dont imply flushing down a production’s complete work for money for IRS money is justified and acceptable. Please.
I feel there’s been a lot of recent justification for WBD and even if its realist, it doesnt make this situation any better and the more its normalized through that justification, the more it will happen.
Edited by M1gamiTensei on Mar 19th 2024 at 10:25:47 AM
Pantheon server for all who click here. Lost too much money and time, this coaster ain’t stopping.It’s morally and artistically wrong. But it cannot be said it was bad from a solely financial or legal perspective. And that sadly is what big publicly owned businesses care about. Especially in the USA where the board is legally obligated to do their best for their investors.
That said, it is a tax loophole that really needs to be closed.
Disgusted, but not surprisedSure, but that's like saying we shouldn't have prison slavery.
There are lots of things that are "wrong" in how the USA allows businesses to operate and none of them are going to be fixed anytime soon. To do so would require a huge shift in how the legislative apparatus functions.
Things like this are just a small symptom of a much larger problem.
The Scrappy of the Trope Pantheon, God of Thumps
I also dont like what I see as absolving or downplaying Zaslav of his role in WBD here just because he answers to shareholders. That like saying a manager is not responsible for what happens to employees under them, just because there is a higher authority that enables them. It is going to be hard to argue a CEO position does not have influence even with shareholders to answer to
Edited by M1gamiTensei on Mar 19th 2024 at 10:50:44 AM
Pantheon server for all who click here. Lost too much money and time, this coaster ain’t stopping.Certainly he has influence. There's just no evidence that he's going against the rest of the board in any way and you don't see anyone in here talking about Di Piazza (the actual board head), or Sims (the legal officer who no doubt makes sure that WBD's unethical actions are still within the bounds of the law, or breaking the law in ways impossible to detect or simply not worth investigating, which is much the same) with the same level of fervor or blind rage.
The problem is when you build someone like that into some antagonistic figure responsible for everything bad that happens at WBD you lose sight of the actual, larger picture. Zaslav's a big cog, but a replacable cog.
Edited by ArthurEld on Mar 19th 2024 at 11:01:22 AM
The Scrappy of the Trope Pantheon, God of Thumps
If you’re acting as the face of the company, it is completely fine to direct all the blame to that face even if there are arguable more influential figures behind the scenes.
But now someone made it apparent we have another face we can dunk on constantly. Wont die down on hating Dave though better than playing devil’s advocate (like why would you advocate for the devil)
Edited by M1gamiTensei on Mar 20th 2024 at 12:19:44 PM
Pantheon server for all who click here. Lost too much money and time, this coaster ain’t stopping.The problem with that is that it ignores the more fundamental problems. WBD has always struggled with making a full length Looney Tunes movie work.
- Space Jam was a success, but it was a thorny one. There was a lot of conflict during production that boiled down to whether it should be a "Looney Tunes guest starring Michael Jordan" movie or a "Michael Jordan movie guest starring Looney Tunes" movie. They ultimately went with the latter option.
- Back in Action was a deliberate attempt to make the Looney Tunes the star this time around. The creator of that movie supposedly hated Space Jam because it was more about the human star. But Back in Action's poor performance at the box office if anything validated the decision to make Michael Jordan the center of Space Jam.
- Hence why Space Jam A New Legacy went back to Space Jam's approach. Unfortunately, while it fared a lot better than Back in Action, it was released at a bad time. And its main star didn't have the same star power as Michael Jordan did back when the first Space Jam was released.
- And that brings us to Coyote vs. Acme.
The Looney Tunes' movie career has been a difficult one, that much is certain.
Disgusted, but not surprisedOff-topic again.
The fact that Urkel Saves Santa: The Movie!, which was originally shelved and written off for taxes by WB, got a release anyway last year is more or less a good sign that Scoob! Holiday Haunt couldnote be taken off the naughty list as well in the future, and also a sign that Warner Bros. can undo write-offs.
Edited by aldrinejoseph25 on Mar 20th 2024 at 1:54:53 AM
There's already a thread for general WB animation
. That kind of news is better suited for that thread.
Come to think of it, the general discussion of WB not knowing what to do with Looney Tunes would suit that thread too. I'm gonna bring it up there right now.
Edited by M84 on Mar 20th 2024 at 5:00:23 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedI do have my doubts this movie will come anywhere close to the rapturous appraisal it's been getting, given the writing "quality" of recent Looney Tunes projects. Seems like a negotiating tactic, which is fine and of course I support the release and the animators getting paid, but let's not be surprised if this comes out and has about the quality of the recent Rescue Rangers movie.
The Scrappy of the Trope Pantheon, God of Thumps
Its the principle than it being a positively received film which everyone focuses on (because you know, nobody in the punch knows whats in the movie). Would look bad if its the case of it being more negative, but a win against tax write off practices regardless.
Speaking of actual things in movies after I seen screenshots of Coyote in a courtroom, will it be like Garfield 2 where we get a good chunk of the movie was dedicated to real estate. I dont get why more than a few family films starring a wacky cartoon characters delve into topics along the same lines as taxes for a good chunk
Pantheon server for all who click here. Lost too much money and time, this coaster ain’t stopping.Having seen the plot summary leak, I can say that the legal drama is a fake-out.
Coyote doesn't care whether he wins or not. His court room antics also make the whole thing a farce the judge wants to throw out asap. Coyote's true goal was to get the Roadrunner to serve as a witness in the case so he could try to trap the Roadrunner again. Because that's all Coyote really wants. He actually gives up on the case when they fail to get the Roadrunner to show up as a witness.
The real drama comes from the reveal of "Project Sisyphus". The reason Acme wanted to avoid the case and later wrap it up asap is because it threatens to expose this project. Turns out Acme isn't Incompetence, Inc. — it's Evil, Inc.. All of their products are deliberately shoddy and prone to backfire because they want to see what repeated failures do to their Toon customers. It's like Vault-Tec from the Fallout series creating intentionally shitty Vaults to run social experiments on the residents trapped in them.
Disgusted, but not surprisedEh, not really.
It just changes the conflict from a legal drama to a corporate espionage thriller. Acme is willing to kill to hide their secret.
The Roadrunner doesn't show up until the end. Even then, it's not to confront the Coyote. Instead, the Roadrunner admits he sees Wile Coyote as a friend and has come to enjoy the chase. Wile Coyote is so moved by this that he lets the Roadrunner go (that one time at least) to continue the chase another day.
Edited by M84 on Mar 20th 2024 at 6:01:16 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
That reminds me of a Looney Tunes comic (#78) where Daffy Duck was a spy infiltrating Acme which had suddenly become safe to use, and his handlers were worried the Coyote would catch the Road Runner. "All this safety is due to a rise in quality in Acme products! If it continues, the world as we know it will be destroyed!" the mastermind was Elmer Fudd, who planned to increase Acme safety so villains would never be embarrassed again.
(Lola also starred in some comics as a pizza delivery girl who got in wacky shenanigans, usually delivering to gods and monsters.)
Edited by lalalei2001 on Mar 20th 2024 at 6:26:04 AM
The Protomen enhanced my life.

Back in Action had a similar budget as Coyote vs. Acme and was released before pandemic times. It bombed even worse. It didn't even make its production budget back worldwide ($68.5 million gross against an $80 million budget).
A New Legacy at least did make slightly more than its production budget with its worldwide release ($163.7 million gross to a $150 million budget). That's still a failure since a movie needs to make at least 2.5 times its production budget to be considered profitable.
Edited by M84 on Mar 19th 2024 at 11:54:57 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised