DC/WB Films/Worlds (No Spoilers)

[achilles]

They legit have no case. Period! WB is the distributor and can distribute as they see fit, they’re still releasing in theaters so no contracts have been broken. Theaters also need WB because I don’t see any other studio releasing their films either.
pro
Honestly let all those people throw a tantrum (Nolan, millionaire celebrities...etc), the consumer has spoken and this will be the future. Watch what happens on Thursday when Disney announces their films for Disney Plus and Universal, there’s for Peacock.

I'm not sure WB have a case...if, as seems very likely, the various productions have contracts regarding distribution and WB violated that...WB will lose. And I can't think of why any production company or actor's agent would agree to anything that would take away potential earnings. Some sort of agreement to the distribution model must be in every contract with the distribution companies.

[The Darknight Detective]

I'm not sure WB have a case...if, as seems very likely, the various productions have contracts regarding distribution and WB violated that...WB will lose. And I can't think of why any production company or actor's agent would agree to anything that would take away potential earnings. Some sort of agreement to the distribution model must be in every contract with the distribution companies.

Yeah, the "new norm" might have hit a big pothole here.

[Flash Gordon]

Stream it all, this is great news.

[Castling]

Those lawsuits may indeed go somewhere, depending on the contracts. More broadly, Legendary will probably never work with them again, as will many others, actors and production companies. There likely is some contract violation there unless Legendary had very bad contract lawyers. Which I doubt. That also means Chinese money will not flow like it did before. And they had offers from streaming services, which likely adds to any case Legendary may have.

What part of the contract allows Legendary to sell GvsK to Netflix? WB was able to put the kibosh on it, so they must have some pull.

[Confuzzled]

What part of the contract allows Legendary to sell GvsK to Netflix? WB was able to put the kibosh on it, so they must have some pull.

There has to be a clause stating WB needs to consent to Legendary selling their wares elsewhere.

It's the other way around that seems to be in the grey area for WB to feel confident to make such a move.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Have you seen the box office lately or the polls suggesting Americans won’t return to cinemas anytime soon? AT&T made the right call here. They were losing millions, maybe even billions sitting on all those films, at least now they increased interest in HBO Max and subscriptions have likely went way up (app downloads were way up). There’s way more money to be made in streaming than theaters (7B with current HBO Max subscribers vs 5.8B as WB’s highest grossing year ever in 2018).

They tried releasing a movie with Tenet, it bombed! This is the new normal and I actually like it! Now I can watch it in theaters or at home or both! Also those lawsuits ain’t going anywhere lol WB is still releasing them in theaters and they lowered the benchmark for bonuses (ie bonus at 150M instead of 300M world wide now).

No argument that putting them all on HBO Max was a good idea, it's how they executed that idea without even consulting any of the producers and actors on those movies first. Apparently, they only worked out deals with Jenkins & Gadot and shafted everyone else. That's not smart. They should have worked out all those deals, then made the announcement, but they made it early out of desperation, which seems to have blown up in their faces.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

It's not like AT&T making dumb business decisions is unheard of...

It's sort of their brand now.

AT&T! We're bad at our jobs!

[Bored at 3:00AM]

They legit have no case. Period! WB is the distributor and can distribute as they see fit, they’re still releasing in theaters so no contracts have been broken. Theaters also need WB because I don’t see any other studio releasing their films either.

Honestly let all those people throw a tantrum (Nolan, millionaire celebrities...etc), the consumer has spoken and this will be the future. Watch what happens on Thursday when Disney announces their films for Disney Plus and Universal, there’s for Peacock.

Legally, they may be in the clear, but that's only part of the equation. How many of these creatives will work for Warner's again if this is how they are treated? Modern Hollywood is all about attracting the right talent to attach to the right properties. If that talent is pissed off at you, that's not good for your long-term health as a studio.

[Confuzzled]

No argument that putting them all on HBO Max was a good idea, it's how they executed that idea without even consulting any of the producers and actors on those movies first. Apparently, they only worked out deals with Jenkins & Gadot and shafted everyone else. That's not smart. They should have worked out all those deals, then made the announcement, but they made it early out of desperation, which seems to have blown up in their faces.

They wouldn't have been able to afford the same kind of money that they gave Jenkins and Gadot for every major player associated with their 2021 films so I can see why they thought communicating with folks beforehand would be pointless and stretch timelines. They needed to be the first studio to make this announcement and the clock was ticking for that (Disney will be making major announcements of their own during their Investor Day this Thursday).

[Will Evans]

oops. Wrong thread.

[Vordan]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/04/att-...ide-story.html

Damn. And while they’re doing all this they gave Zack Snyder $70 million for 4 minutes of footage on a movie that was a massive flop already? Very worried about what is going to happen if things don’t pan out. I certainly don’t expect the Snyder Cut to review well, and maybe WB has realized that hence putting everything in their 2021 slate on HBO Max.

[achilles]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/04/att-...ide-story.html

Damn. And while they’re doing all this they gave Zack Snyder $70 million for 4 minutes of footage on a movie that was a massive flop already? Very worried about what is going to happen if things don’t pan out. I certainly don’t expect the Snyder Cut to review well, and maybe WB has realized that hence putting everything in their 2021 slate on HBO Max.

I used to actually get upset about this sort of thing until I realized that even if they disemboweled all my characters forever, I wasn't going to hurt me, and since I don't own their stock, it also won't hurt me if they flop. That's when while retaining interest, I stopped worrying about that. And I feel so much better ever since. I agree that ATT/WB seem riding for a fall there, but I can just now be an interested observer without getting worked up about it, and I like that so much better. I can't believe I used to actually get upset about things like this, but at least I've seen the light.

[madmodpoetgod]

It still runs bloods of rage to my mind whenever I hear that name -Christopher Nolan. His third Batman movie was the most politically manipulated work of American cinema since Cold War. His tendencies toward autocracy and fascism ruin Batman for me. Let people enjoy their movies in the safest possible way. You are already a man of status quo with billions.

[Agent Z]

It still runs bloods of rage to my mind whenever I hear that name -Christopher Nolan. His third Batman movie was the most politically manipulated work of American cinema since Cold War.

Not even close. The Olympus Has Fallen movies easily hold that honor.

His tendencies toward autocracy and fascism ruin Batman for me.

Nolan was the first director to portray Bruce's vigilantism as not entirely a good thing. In fact, most of the time he portrays torture as being completely useless as opposed to most Batman scribes writing it as effective.

[The Kid]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/04/att-...ide-story.html

Damn. And while they’re doing all this they gave Zack Snyder $70 million for 4 minutes of footage on a movie that was a massive flop already? Very worried about what is going to happen if things don’t pan out. I certainly don’t expect the Snyder Cut to review well, and maybe WB has realized that hence putting everything in their 2021 slate on HBO Max.

I don't even know why they named it HBO Max. Confusing name and IMO it degrades the HBO brand which up till now has been synonymous with a certain level of quality. Most of the MAX Originals I've seen seem like the kinda low effort crap Netflix has