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According to Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav, consumers should get used to the idea of bundled streaming services.

"For me, it seems very clear that if we were to package this great product that we have with others, if you were to wake up tomorrow and in each market the number one, two or three products, if we were marketed with two or three, for specific price, it would be great for consumers, it would probably reduce churn," Zaslav said during an investors conference, per The Hollywood Reporter. Churn refers to the number of subscribers who frequently cancel or let lapse their streaming subscriptions, often when they've finished watching the content for which they signed up. "If we don't do it to ourselves. I think it'll be done to us," Zaslav added.

Related: HBO Fans Are Split on Whether the Max Rebrand Is Great or Awful

Zaslav's comments come ahead of Warner Bros.

After years of tech-driven disruption (remember when a phone company briefly owned Warner Bros.?), David Zaslav has been trying to strike a back-to-basics, business-as-usual tone with anyone who will listen: Wall Street analysts, Hollywood creatives and most recently the crowd of theater owners gathered in Las Vegas at CinemaCon this week.

The Warner Bros. Discovery chief has strongly rejected the streaming-first strategy of his predecessor, Jason Kilar, the Hulu cofounder who advanced day-and-date or HBO Max-only releases for Warner Bros. movies. At CinemaCon, Zaslav promised long theatrical runs for Warner’s slate of new movies like “Barbie” and “The Flash.”

Movies seemed like something of an afterthought at the unveiling of Max, the replacement for HBO Max, this month. “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” which faltered at the box office, will have its streaming debut as Max begins service on May 23. There was no mention of streaming-only movies.

The answer...

Movies, now more than ever? Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav sought to rally the troops on Tuesday at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, proclaiming “content is more powerful than armies” and reiterating his company’s commitment to theatrical exhibition.

“We do not believe in streaming movies,” Zaslav was quoted as saying by Deadline. “Movies [in theaters] perform substantially better when we bring them to HBO Max than any of the direct-to-streaming movies. We said it nine months ago, and we said it six months ago. We have never felt stronger about it.”

If that sounds like a shot at the previous Warner Bros. regime, that’s because it could be taken in such a fashion. Before being acquired by Zaslav’s Discovery, then-WarnerMedia boss Jason Kilar spearheaded a day-and-date release strategy that put top Warner Bros. movies in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously. But that gambit, which obviously curtailed ticket...

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The overall sentiment at this year’s CinemaCon is that of optimism. After a global pandemic shuttered theaters worldwide, and then an industry-wide pivot to streaming made theatrical release less sexy to Wall Street, Hollywood at-large seems to have gotten the message. If you want to make money on your movie, and even if you want people to watch your movie on a streaming platform, you have to put it in theaters first. That’s music to the ears of AMC’s colorful CEO Adam Aron.

“We almost ran out of cash five different times,” Aron told TheWrap in Las Vegas Tuesday. “We [had times where] we had just four to six weeks of cash [on hand].”

Aron spoke openly about how close AMC came to collapse in the first year of the Covid pandemic. The...

Day Two of CinemaCon got off to an early start, which meant a subdued and potentially casino-fogged audience in the Caesar’s Palace Colosseum. And then Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav took the stage.

“We believe in full windowing of the motion pictures,” he told a theater full of theater owners. “We do not want to do direct-to-streaming movies. We are in no rush to bring the movies to Max.”

That woke them up.

Last year, CinemaCon was where Warner Bros. basically apologized for going day-and-date in theaters and on HBO Max with its entire slate of movies — a Jason Kilar plan to come out of the Covid pandemic. Well, Kilar’s gone, HBO Max is soon to become Max, and this definitely ain’t that Warner Bros. Discovery.

Zaslav said it’s not just “good business” to be completely committed to theatrical, but that America “needs to rally right now.

Two weeks after showing off the future of their rebranded Max streaming service, David Zaslav and Warner Bros. embraced theatrical as they showed off their upcoming 2023 slate at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

Zaslav made his debut at the movie theater trade show on Tuesday with a lengthy speech that earned plenty of applause from cinema execs, especially when he reaffirmed his company’s plans to never go back to the day-and-date releasing model that his predecessor, Jason Kilar, rolled out for all of Warner’s theatrical releases in 2021.

“We believe in full theatrical windows, we don’t believe in direct to streaming. We are in no rush to push films to Max,” Zaslav said. “When we partner with you and bring these movies to theaters and promote them, and later on we market them again and release them at home while you still have them in your theaters, and then...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was a conquering hero in the eyes of theater owners as he traveled to Las Vegas to personally reaffirm his commitment to the big screen during CinemaCon.

“We believe in full windowing. We are in no rush to bring movies to Max. It is a great service. Movies that open in theaters perform substantially better than any of the direct-to-streaming movies,” Zaslav said in his first appearance at CinemaCon, drawing huge applause when pronouncing that his company doesn’t believe in streaming movies.

“We have to rally right now. It’s a moment in time when people need to be entertained. What is Warner Bros. Discovery? It is a storytelling business,” he continued. “And the purest form are motion pictures in theaters. The phone goes off and the lights go out. That’s the only place it happens. It is a community experience.”

He...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav came to Las Vegas to put all of his chips on movie theaters.

The executive made an appearance at CinemaCon, the annual convention of theatrical exhibitors, to reassure the crowd that the Warner Bros. Pictures Group was not interested in releasing its premium movies directly to streaming platform Max.

“At Warner Bros., at DC Studios, we believe that everything is possible. This business could be bigger and stronger than its ever been,” Zaslav said on stage at Caesar’s Palace on Tuesday. “We believe in full windowing of the motion pictures. We do not want to do direct-to-streaming movies. We’re in no rush to bring the movie to Max.”

Zaslav praised his newly-installed leaders Mike De Luca and Pamela Abdy at Warner Bros., as well as James Gunn and Peter Safran at DC. He bemoaned that Warners only had six films on its...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and President David Zaslav, just a day after revealing details of the new combined streaming service Max, joined industry titans Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson to tout another area close to the heart of the studio he now heads: the importance of restoring and preserving Warner Bros.’ rich legacy of film classics, especially as it heads into its 100th anniversary year. Appearing on stage at the opening night of the 14th TCM Classic Film Festival with Spielberg and Anderson in a conversation moderated by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, Zaslav — who previously stated his belief in the theatrical experience and a return to that after 2021’s much-derided day-and-date release model under past CEO Jason Kilar — made it clear that the studio’s commitment to the preservation and well-being of the studio’s rich library will be a priority in his administration. (Turner Classic Movies is a...

Although an introductory video at Wednesday’s Warner Bros Discovery streaming event included clips of NBA star LeBron James and CNN host Anderson Cooper, the rest of the presentation was strikingly sports- and news-free.

CEO David Zaslav said the omissions were entirely intentional. Sports and news are “vibrant parts” of the company that “will be key to our long-term streaming strategy,” Zaslav said in his opening remarks. “In a few months,” he added, “we’ll come back to you with details of our attack plan to use this important and differentiating live content to grow our streaming business even further.”

Plans for harnessing the power of live programming can take a while to come together, as media rivals like Disney, NBCUniversal and Paramount Global have discovered in their respective streaming adventures. The equation has many variables, including a declining but still lucrative pay-tv ecosystem, a frothy market for sports rights...

Streamer drops HBO from name, announces three-tier price plan. International details to follow.

Warner Bros Discovery’s (Wbd) long-awaited streaming platform combining HBO Max and Discovery+ is called Max and will launch in the US on May 23.

The Max Ad-Free tier will stay at $15.99 per month, and the cost of Max Ad-Lite remains $9.99. Users will need to pay $19.99 for the new Max Ultimate Ad Free plan offering 4K Uhd resolution, 100 offline downloads, and Dolby Atmos sound quality.

Wbd will issue announcements for its international service, which continues to roll out, in due course.

In an hour-long presentation on Wednesday (April...

What’s one way to drum up anticipation for a streaming service merger? Keep the new name secret.

As Warner Bros. Discovery prepares to unveil its refreshed streaming service on April 12, outside partners are still awaiting official word on what exactly the merged HBO Max–Discovery streamer will be named as executives continue to refer to the service by its code name, “Beam,” according to people familiar with the matter. (That code name has been referenced for several months, although it’s unclear if there are several shorthand references to the services, either for in-house notes or with outside partners.)

The event, taking place at 10 am Pst on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and streaming online, is set to showcase what the merged company’s marquee streaming service will look like as it loses the HBO Max name and gains programming from Discovery+.

Even as Beam is used internally,...

Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament took a hiatus during the pandemic as movie theaters closed for the majority of 2020-2021 and theatrical day-and-date titles on both the big screen and studios’ respective streaming platforms became more prevalent. Coming back from that brink, the studios have largely returned to their theatrical release models and the downstream monies they can bring. Not to mention their power in launching IPs around the world with big global marketing campaigns. When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&a, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end of the equation, Deadline is repeating our Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament for 2022, using data culled by seasoned and trusted sources.

Soon after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger was finalized, CEO David Zaslav said that he believed that his new company’s future lay in a pivot away from the now subsided streaming boom and back towards movie theaters, and his latest earnings call comments suggest that he is even more adamant in this direction.

On Thursday, Zaslav spoke about Warner Bros.’ recent strategy to move films greenlit under previous CEO Jason Kilar’s leadership for exclusive release on HBO Max to an exclusive release in theaters before going to the streaming service. The executive said that after analyzing streaming metrics on HBO Max with the service’s chief content officer Casey Bloys, they found that releasing films as streaming exclusives did not provide any return on investment.

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David Zaslav Signals Confidence in CNN Chief Chris Licht: ‘I Believe We Are on the Right Path’

“We were able...

As Derek Zoolander might put it, releasing films in theaters is so hot right now. Channing Tatum’s “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” topped the weekend box office with 8.2 million in just 1,500 theaters, with a likely upswing arriving by Valentine’s Day — not bad for a movie that was never meant for the big screen.

The Steven Soderbergh-directed male stripper threequel is the highest-profile example of 2023’s buzziest Hollywood trend: releasing movies in movie theaters instead of on streaming. Three other Warner Bros. features, “House Party,” “Evil Dead Rise” and “Blue Beetle,” initially greenlit by ex-WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar for HBO Max, are getting a theatrical window courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

“We switched our strategy, which was focused on building a streaming platform, to one that is focused on each film,” Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution told TheWrap. They aren’t the only ones.

Between the Super Bowl this Sunday and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” coming next Friday, the new release list for movie theaters is scarce this weekend. But what is coming is “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” a Warner Bros. film that was greenlit as an HBO Max exclusive but is now getting a theatrical release strategy that has perplexed analysts and rival studios.

Starring Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek in what’s being billed as the ending of a trilogy that began with “Magic Mike” in 2012 and continued with “Magic Mike Xxl” in 2015, the dramedy about male stripper “Magic” Mike Lane is getting a release on just 1,500 theaters as opposed to the 3,355 that “Magic Mike Xxl” got eight years ago.

When David Zaslav took over Warner Bros. after its merger with Discovery last year, he promised a recommitment to releasing films theatrically after the studio, under the direction of previous CEO Jason Kilar,...

The first teaser trailers for “Evil Dead Rise” show off a very scary mother figure, which is great considering we are approaching the 10-year anniversary of Andrés Muschietti’s “Mama.”

Warner Bros. Discovery dropped two trailers this morning. The age-restricted red-band trailer features the tagline “Evil Comes Home” and is focused on mood, menace and onscreen carnage. The green-band teaser, which you can watch above, features a tagline “Witness the Rise of the Mother of All Evil” and is more plot-focused and emphasizes bloodless shocks and gooey menace. It’s no slouch in the intensity department, but it’s arguably safe to play ahead of Universal’s PG-13-rated “M3GAN,” which premieres Thursday night.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s official synopsis states that this fifth “Evil Dead” film concerns a road-weary traveler, Beth (Lily Sullivan) who visits her older sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.

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Imagine any top film studio exec or producer reading Jason Kilar’s recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, in which he called 2022 “one of the most consequential and anxiety-ridden years in Hollywood history.”

“No shit, Jason,” most of them undoubtedly thought. “Thank you, arsonist, for sharing your wisdom about the fire.” Or something like that. Kilar has yet to be forgiven for Project Popcorn, the shock decision to throw the entire Warners 2021 slate onto the nascent HBO Max streaming service the same day the films premiered in theaters. Asked about the past year’s weak overall performance of theatrical releases, one high-level studio exec reflects the opinion of many, saying, “Without question, Kilar fucked things up so badly in terms of the general health of our industry that we’re going to be feeling those reverberations for a long time.”

Obviously in a world battered by a pandemic,...

A year ago it was all good and then the impossible happened: Netflix lost subscribers.

The undisputed king of streaming expected to pick up 2.5 million global paid subscribers over the first three months of 2022. And why not? It added nearly 4 million subscribers from January-March 2021. Instead, Netflix not only lost 200,000 subs, but it also braced Wall Street for a loss of 2 million more from April to June. That grim prediction did not come to pass — the streamer shed just 970,000 subscribers in Q2, and got back to its growing ways this summer — but already the damage was done and streaming will never be the same.

At the end of 2021, shares of Netflix (Nflx) traded in the 600s; today, even after a steady climb over the second half of 2022, Nflx sells for about half that. Along the way, the once-almighty company was forced to completely revamp its business. Netflix laid off staff, it...

Wednesday’s DC chaos about the unplugging of Patty Jenkins’ version of Wonder Woman 3 coupled with rampant rumors of the studio’s new co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran turning the comic book label upside down sans a Henry Cavill Man of Steel 2 and possible re-casting of many current big superhero roles has left the town with a bad case of Ptsd.

Related Story James Gunn Responds To ‘Wonder Woman 3’ Axing, Possible DC Franchise Turnover: "We Are Not Going To Make Every Single Person Happy" Related Story Patty Jenkins' 'Wonder Woman 3' Treatment A No Go Under New Peter Safran-James Gunn DC Administration; Axing Comes A Day After Gal Gadot's Hopeful Tweet For Sequel Related Story Jennifer Lawrence R-Rated Comedy 'No Hard Feelings' Shifts A Week Away From 'The Flash'

The lack of communication to talent reps and content creators by the studio about what’s next in the DC empire,...

“We know we are not going to make every single person happy every step of the way.”

James Gunn has responded to reports that DC Studios has shelved Wonder Woman 3, tweeting: ”We know we are not going to make every single person happy every step of the way.”

DC Studios co-heads Gunn and Safran recently return from a brainstorming session in Colorado and are preparing to present their vision for the future of the superhero stable to Warner Bros Discovery head David Zaslav next week.

According to The Hollywood Reporter the executives informed Jenkins of their decision to shelve a...

In the first big bold move by the new heads of DC, James Gunn and Peter Safran, Deadline has confirmed that they’ve put the kibosh on Patty Jenkins’ treatment for Wonder Woman 3. The filmmaker was expected to hand in a screenplay, we understand, and instead the new bosses got pieces of paper that just weren’t suitable.

All of this goes down a day after a curious tweet from Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, who thanked fans and told them, “Can’t wait to share her next chapter with you.”

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It’s an obvious sign that Gunn and Safran are wanting to start anew,...

Warner Bros Discovery and Amazon have struck a new distribution deal for HBO Max, returning the streaming service to Prime Video Channels.

The agreement undoes a key mission for prior corporate entity WarnerMedia, which launched HBO Max in 2020, two years before merging with Discovery. Former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who had a long exec stint at Amazon early in his career, made it a central goal to secure distribution for HBO Max as a stand-alone app on Amazon Fire TV devices as opposed to having it featured as part of Channels. WarnerMedia’s then-parent, AT&T, championed Kilar’s strategy, with CEO John Stankey publicly antagonizing Amazon for what he said were strong-arm tactics. The tangle wound up delaying HBO Max’s availability on Amazon for months, costing the nascent streaming operation access to key new subscribers as it hit the market. Roku, another major streaming gateway, also faced a months-long...

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HBO Max is coming back to Amazon.

More than a year after the streaming service was pulled from Prime Video Channels (which sells third party streaming services through Amazon Prime), the tech giant and Warner Bros. Discovery said Tuesday that they have a new deal to bring HBO Max back.

HBO Max will be available beginning Dec. 6 for 14.99 per month (the cheaper ad-supported tier does not appear to be available as of now), and subscribers will have access to the new service that will include Discovery content when it launches next year. The current offering includes some 15,000 hours of content.

HBO Max left Amazon Prime Video Channels in September 2021, causing HBO Max to lose some 5 million subscribers in the process. Channels has proven itself as an adapt driver of subscribers to video services over the years, with Paramount+, AMC+ and Starz among the services using the platform.

Remember Jason Kilar? After the insanity of 2022, the WarnerMedia CEO’s exit following the Warners-Discovery merger last April seems like a relic from another time. However, he’d like to make sure he’s not forgotten: In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Kilar wrote his predictions for the streaming business. Among his prognostications: There’s room for three major streamers and that’s it.

“No more than three global entertainment companies are likely to attain the streaming-service scale required — 300 million global subscriptions at an average of 15 per month — to generate attractive cash flows,” Kilar wrote. “Expect two or three major mergers and/or acquisitions involving entertainment companies in the coming 24 months as a result.”

It’s not all bad news, however. “Given the unusually large addressable market and the relatively fixed cost of content at scale, I believe the streaming cash flows of the leading companies will...

Netflix co-ceo and chairman Reed Hastings conceded that he wished the streamer had introduced an ad-supported plan years ago.

Netflix’s reluctance to adopt advertising was “wrong” and that it was a mistake to not jump into the segment several years ago, said Hastings, speaking Wednesday at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York. But the company eventually came around to the idea, and Hastings called the rollout of Netflix with ads this fall a “good tactic, because we get to offer consumers lower prices.”

“I have two religions: customer satisfaction and operating income,” he said. “Everything else is a tactic.”

In responding to interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin of the Times, Hastings said, “You’re right to say I didn’t believe in the ad-supported tactic for us. And I was wrong about that.” Hastings credited Hulu and ex-ceo Jason Kilar for demonstrating success with advertising in premium...

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Legendary Entertainment — Hollywood’s high-profile producer and co-financier of big-budget studio fare — has found a new partner in Sony Pictures.

Under the terms of the deal, Legendary’s movies will be distributed and marketed globally by Sony, excluding China, where Legendary East will handle those duties. Sony will also handle home entertainment and TV distribution for those films. Sony does not have a streaming service, and Legendary will continue to partner with other companies for streaming, as it has with Netflix on the Enola Holmes films.

The pact does not include the Dune or Godzilla franchises, which will continue to be released by Warner Bros., Legendary’s previous partner. Dune: Part Two is due out from Warners on Nov. 3, 2023.

There is no formal deal for Sony to co-finance Legendary films, though it’s possible the two could explore that option down the road.

YouTube is getting into the third-party streaming subscription game, launching Primetime Channels, a hub where consumers can sign up for Showtime, Starz, Paramount+ and more than 30 other services.

The initiative is starting in the U.S., the company confirmed in a blog post. Visitors to YouTube can access Primetime Channels via the Movies & TV area of YouTube. NBA League Pass and other services are coming soon, the blog post indicated. While there has been a bit of consolidation in the past couple of years, most estimates peg the total number of subscription streaming services in the U.S. at more than 300.

Apple, Amazon, Roku and other streaming gateways have long been key stakeholders in the subscription game, as has YouTube parent Google via its Android store. For YouTube, the entry into channel vending accentuates a pivot it has been executing, away from original programming and toward its traditional strength in distribution and creator-driven content.

Another wave of Warner Bros Discovery post-merger layoffs is coming.

We hear multiple divisions of the merged company will be impacted, with Warner Bros. Television Group considered a main target. The staff reductions are expected this week, as soon as (and likely) Tuesday. Speculation about the imminent downsizing started spreading like wildfire Monday morning. Reps for Wbd and Wbtvg declined comment.

The number of layoffs is unclear but appears to be substantial. The HBO/HBO Max programming operation in August laid off 14 of staff — about 70 people — the vast majority of them on the Max side, with the areas of Max Non-Fiction Originals, International, Acquisitions, Casting and Live-Action Family Originals as the most heavily impacted.

Like with HBO/HBO Max, the Wbtvg cuts are expected to be accompanied by structural changes spearheaded by Chairman Channing Dungey.

A new round of Wbd layoffs was expected in the fall as the goal has...

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Amazon was launching its own 500 million Lord of the Rings TV series, and it was in the market for a way to hook potential viewers of its fantasy epic. So, naturally, it called Warner Bros. Discovery, the owner of Amazon Prime Video’s competitor, HBO Max.

The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films are controlled by Warner Bros. and had been locked up exclusively for streaming on HBO Max by the company’s previous owner. The trilogy, which generated nearly 3 billion in box office revenue and comprised some of the best known IP in the HBO Max film library, was now up for grabs, at least on a nonexclusive basis. Whereas before, WarnerMedia zealously guarded its films for HBO Max, now Warner Bros. Discovery is open about the fact that, well, they are, as CEO David Zaslav says, “open for business.”

“We...

Legendary Pictures, the production company behind the "Dark Knight" franchise and the MonsterVerse, which includes movies like "Godzilla vs. Kong," is gearing up for a big move. The company has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Warner Bros. for much of its existence, and the relationship has been undoubtedly fruitful. However, it appears as though Legendary's current deal is up and they have the option to take their business to a new home -- and it's probably not going to be Warner Bros.

As first reported by The Ankler, Legendary is currently looking to set up a new deal with a studio partner now that they are not currently under contract. Yes, they have projects such as "Dune: Part Two" and the "Godzilla vs. Kong" sequel in the works at Warner Bros., but new projects are no longer under any obligation to any studio. The important thing here is that...

Legendary Entertainment is said to be eyeing a move from its on-again, off-again home at Warner Bros. as its deal with that studio expired recently, Deadline has confirmed.

Sony and Paramount are said to be in the mix, with the former a front-runner. Warner Bros. also has a new deal on the table for Legendary, which was previously at Universal and before that at Warner.

Reps for Legendary and Warner Bros. declined to comment.

There was a kerfuffle with Warners during the whole Jason Kilar-led Project Popcorn that put Dune in theaters and on HBO Max. But the studio has since committed to Dune: Part Two, currently shooting in Jordan, and Kilar is gone. Both Legendary titles, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Dune, were the highest grossing movies worldwide under the WarnerMedia-HBO Max day-and-date experiment last year, grossing respectively 386.6M and 401.8M. Dune went on to win...

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Batgirl won’t be flying onto HBO Max screens, but a select group of insiders is getting to see the film during secret screenings on the Warner Bros. lot this week, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. They are said to be for people who worked on the movie, both cast and crew, as well as representatives and executives.

One source described them as “funeral screenings,” held before the film is sent off to an undisclosed afterlife, with footage locked away in a vault, either physical or digital.

On Aug. 2, Batgirl became the most talked-about film in the world when news broke that new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav had opted to scrap the 90 million DC film in order to take a tax write-down. (The CEO of the newly merged company is seeking 3 billion in cost savings.)

Batgirl was deep in postproduction...

Contrary to the apocalyptic suggestions that spread like wildfires earlier this month, HBO Max is here to stay. On August 4, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced the streamer will merge with Discovery+ into a single platform expected to launch around summer 2023, as part of a plan to hit 130 million paying subscribers by 2025. The rumors that circulated on the eve of that earnings call may have been histrionic—was HBO Max going to be folded into Discovery+? Would that mean the end of all its scripted originals?The panic was understandable. Earlier that week, Warner Bros. Discovery had pulled the plug on Batgirl, a finished 90-million-dollar feature starring Leslie Grace in the title role and Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader. Long before Batgirl’s shelving, other HBO Max exclusives had been quietly removed from its slate. And Zaslav’s promise to achieve 3 billion in cost savings is likely to include significant layoffs,...

At HBO Max, the Bat-folk can’t catch a break. Weeks after the decision to kill the effectively completed straight-to-streaming movie “Batgirl,” HBO Max canceled “Batman: Caped Crusader” and “Merry Little Batman,” among four other animated projects. The good news for these six newly scrapped Warner Bros. Animation projects is they are still full steam ahead in production and being shopped elsewhere, a person with knowledge of the situation told IndieWire — unlike “Batgirl,” which will never see the light of day.

A second source told IndieWire that HBO Max has made the choice to spend some time away from the kids-and-family sandbox. It’s a crowded and expensive field, and HBO Max isn’t a breakout brand for that type of programming. Disney+ and Netflix will vie for the kids’ market, one with no opportunity for ad revenue — both made a pledge to let the programming run commercial free — in...

Exclusive: For all the noise about David Zaslav’s quest to find 3 billion in cost-saving initiatives at the newly merged Warner Bros Discovery, what remains important to the new CEO is to spend on content where those dollars pay off.

And where is that? Why, on the launch of HBO’s near 200M Game of Thrones spinoff series, House of the Dragon, premiering this Sunday on both the linear pay-tv channel and streaming service HBO Max. Sources inform Deadline that HBO’s biggest marketing campaign ever is valued at over 100M in media spend (that’s a combo of ad spot value and hard cash shelled out). That’s a theatrical tentpole-sized marketing budget by all accounts, not some thrifty, Netflix-type push to subscribers on its menu. And as Zaslav pointed out today in his congratulatory memo to staffers (obtained by Deadline) before House of the Dragon‘s debut,...

Former CBS Films President and Dreamworks marketing head Terry Press and former Paramount Vice Chairman will be informal advisors to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Deadline has confirmed. The news comes amid layoffs at Warner Bros Discovery hitting the programming operation overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys.

As the newly merged company re-gains its footing post AT&T, the duo will consult on myriad matters including marketing, however, we hear it’s not in a formal role like former Disney Chief Creative Officer and Warner Studio Vet Alan Horn.

Zaslav has been friends with Goldwyn going back to Discovery, and he was one of the guys he sat down with during his listening tour. Horn, meanwhile, is involved in strategic and operational consulting.

Essentially, Press and Goldwyn are there for Zas to bounce ideas off of.

Josh Goldstine, remains President of Worldwide Marketing. He steered...

YouTube is better known for its ad-supported, on-demand videos than its premium streaming content, but the Google-owned platform may soon become a one-stop shop for subscription services. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, YouTube is working on a “channel store” that could go live as early as this fall.

Rumors of a YouTube channel store have swirled since at least 2020, when The Information discussed the platform’s plans for a streaming video shop. Per WSJ, the current iteration of the ecommerce initiative has been in the works for “at least 18 months.”

YouTube didn’t comment on the WSJ report, which cited “people close to the recent discussions.” The purported channel store will probably look similar to Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, which lets users append services onto their Prime Video subscriptions for an additional monthly price. These digital storefronts are becoming more common in our era of high streaming service supply.

When Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav spoke to investors on Aug. 4, the very first question was about his decision, announced two days earlier, to cancel the release of DC comics adaptation “Batgirl,” taking the HBO Max production (as well as “Scoob!: Holiday Haunt”) as a tax write-down instead. If Zaslav hoped his answer might help to quell the firestorm that choice created across the industry, he appears to have done the opposite.

Zaslav made public what had been reported and rumored for months: that the company had “restructured” to create a team with a “10-year plan focusing just on DC” that would be “similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin Feige at Disney.”

But the executive, who took the reins of the company in April, did not disclose who would be a part of that team, nor...

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In 2015, David Zaslav compared the industrywide rush to scripted TV to a kids’ soccer game — all players are clumped around the ball, while the rest of the field is wide open. “It’s quite crowded, it’s pretty expensive, and it’s looking more and more like the movie business,” the then-Discovery CEO said, explaining why his executive team wouldn’t join the Peak TV fray.

Fast forward to 2022, and Zaslav, as CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, is running a scripted powerhouse and betting on movies as a key content engine. But he, along with CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, still vows to zag where the industry zigs. “We have no intention of being beholden to anyone in particular or to a specific business model,” Zaslav said during an Aug. 4 earnings call. “Simply put: we are open for business.”

As Zaslav detailed, that plan...

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“We’ve done a reset.” That’s how Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav described DC on Aug. 4, days after he made the call to shelve the 90 million HBO Max film Batgirl. The mogul said there’d now be a team that would create a “10-year” plan for DC, although who’s on that team is unclear.

And Zaslav took digs at former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s strategy of developing straight-to-streaming films. “We are going to focus on quality. We are not going to release any film before it’s ready,” said the executive. “DC is something we can make better.”

The remarks were not well received inside DC, according to multiple insiders who used the same word to describe members of the film division: “pissed.” And DC Films president Walter Hamada nearly exited after learning of the shelving of Batgirl before...

Warner Bros. Discovery has quietly reversed course on a practice that was standard for the first half of 2022, with new release Warner Bros. films no longer guaranteed to stream on HBO Max 45 days after they first hit theaters, a spokesperson confirmed to TheWrap. In yet another sign that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is reversing former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s push towards streaming, the studio remains committed to the 45-day theatrical window but may extend the time between when a film is first released in theaters and when it’s streaming on HBO Max. The timing of when Warner Bros. films will be streaming on HBO Max will be decided on a case-by-case basis, an individual with knowledge of the plan told TheWrap, bringing it more in line with how Universal Pictures and Focus Features’ new releases arrive on NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock. “The Northman,” for example,...

If there was one thing that the turbulent week at Warner Bros. Discovery displayed, it’s just how quickly conventional wisdom can change from one regime to the next, when each is trying to gin up the stock price for Wall Street.

Wbd chief David Zaslav was busy. On the eve of a rumored layoff bloodbath across the company to cut at least 3 billion of debt off the books, there was the abrupt and cruel cancelation of Batgirl and the HBO Max animated feature Scoob! with the latter message delivered while the co-directors were in Morocco as one of them was getting married.

There has also been rampant speculation there may be further trims of the HBO Max development slate of J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot after Abrams’ big-ticket series Demimonde was scrapped in one of the new regime’s first moves. It’s clear that current DC Films head...

Focus includes improving DC Entertainment content.

Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav addressed this week’s shock decision to shelve Batgirl as he outlined a strategy shift away from straight-to-streaming, extolled the virtues of theatrical distribution, and said his executives were focused on ramping up DC Entertainment.

Speaking on a Thursday (August 4) webcast after the company announced its first earnings since the merger closed in April, Zaslav and his senior team warned they would not get drawn into ”content spending wars”, although they were prepared to spend on quality content.

They also emphasised the importance of building a scalable streaming business.

Focus includes improving DC Entertainment content.

Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav addressed this week’s shock decision to shelve Batgirl as he outlined a strategy shift away from straight-to-streaming, extolled the virtues of theatrical distribution, and said his executives were focused on ramping up DC Entertainment.

Speaking on a webcast after the company announced Q2 earnings on Thursday (August 4), Zaslav and his senior team warned the company would not get drawn into ”content spending wars”, although they were prepared to spend on quality on content.

They also emphasised the importance of building a scalable streaming business. To that point,...

Click here to read the full article.

Just two days after Warner Bros. Discovery made the stunning move to cancel the HBO Max film Batgirl, an unapologetic CEO David Zaslav sought to reassure Wall Street there is a cohesive plan for the future of DC.

“You look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman — these are brands that are known everywhere in the world,” Zaslav said during an earnings call Thursday. “We have done a reset. We’ve restructured the business where we are going to focus, where there is going to be a team with a 10-year plan focusing just on DC. We believe we can build a much more sustainable business.”

DC has long wished to emulate the success of the Disney-owned Marvel Studios, which Kevin Feige has built into the highest-grossing film franchise in history. Zaslav recently brought Feige’s former boss, retired Disney film chief Alan Horn,...

“We’re not going to launch a movie until it’s ready.”

That was pretty much Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s answer when asked about the recent scrapping of Batgirl during an investor Q&a on the company’s Q2 call.

While he didn’t specifically address the details of the latest Batgirl imbroglio, which greatly upset many talent reps in town, Zaslav emphasized his commitment to building a 10-year plan for DC a la what former Disney boss Bob Iger and Marvel president Kevin Feige have built.

“Our ambition to is bring Warners back and produce great, high-quality films,” the CEO said. “We can build a long-term sustainable growth business out of DC. We’re not releasing a film before it’s ready.”

He added, “The focus is to make these films as good as possible.”

The Dish: What’s Behind The ‘Batgirl’ & ‘Scoob!’ Discard? David Zaslav...

HBO Max and Discovery+ will officially merge in summer 2023.

Warner Bros. Discovery announced the news during the company's quarterly investor call on Thursday afternoon.

The combined service will bring HBO, CNN, DC Comics, Discovery Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Magnolia Network, OWN, TBS, and TNT together under one roof.

Ominously missing from the investor call is the fate of HBO Max originals, which consists of shows such as Titans, Peacemaker, Hacks, Gossip Girl, and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.

The fate of Max originals has been the topic of much debate this week, thanks to a report from The Wrap that said as much as 70 of HBO Max's development staff could be laid off this week.

All told, the new service is set to launch next summer and feature and ad-free and ad-light offering.

Pricing has yet to be revealed, and given that it is not set to launch until the summer,...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav addressed the company’s controversial decision this week to cancel releases for “Batgirl” and “Scoob!: Holiday Haunt,” during the company’s Q2 earnings call on Thursday.

“We’re not going to launch a movie until it’s ready,” Zaslav said during the Q&a portion of the call, when asked directly about “Batgirl” getting the ax. “We’re not going to launch a movie to make a quarter and we’re not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it.”

During the presentation, Zaslav repeatedly pointed to the company’s DC superhero properties — including Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman — as central to the company’s broader content strategy. To better marshal those properties, Zaslav cited his previously reported goal of putting together a team with a “10-year plan focusing just on DC,” similar to the approach Disney has taken with Marvel Studios,...

In a complete about-face from the business strategy employed by former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav made it firm today that the new merged entertainment conglomerate “will fully embrace theatrical.” Period.

“We have a different view on the wisdom of releasing direct-to-streaming films, and we have taken some aggressive steps to course-correct the previous strategy,” Zaslav said about on the previous 2021 pandemic model that was implemented to spike HBO Max subs.

David Zaslav Talks DC Reset In Wake of ‘Batgirl’ Axing

The CEO expressed his belief in the theatrical window business model today on the conglom’s Q2 earnings call.

No theatrical day-and-date experimentation with the HBO Max streaming service, nada. And as we’ve seen recently, Zaslav has gone to great lengths to course-correct the previous administration’s production plan to make movies straight for the streaming service, pulling the plug on the 70M Batgirl,...