David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery: “We will fully embrace the theater”

In light of the corporate strategy employed by former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Killarney, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav strongly confirmed today that the newly merged entertainment conglomerate will be “fully fit for movies”. period.

“We have a different view on the wisdom of releasing movies for direct streaming and have taken aggressive steps to correct the previous strategy,” Zaslav said of the previous Pandemic 2021 model put in place to power HBO Max. Sub.

David Zaslav talks about DC’s reboot on removing “Batgirl”.

The CEO expressed his belief in the movie window business model today at Conglomerate’s second quarter earnings call.

No movie date and day experiments with the HBO Max streaming service, nothing. And as we saw recently, Zaslav went to great lengths to revise the previous administration’s production plan to make films directly for the streaming service and raise $ 70 million. Bad girl, which was in post-production and Scooby! vacation spot. Zaslav even put the brakes on a DC HBO Max movie with the Wonder Twins. RiverdaleKJ Apa.

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“For example, we are fully embracing attribution because we believe it spurs interest and demand, creating a huge marketing wind and generating word of mouth as films move to streaming and beyond,” Zaslav said of the film’s window model. downstream auxiliaries. “When you are in the cinema, the value of the content and the overall visual experience are high.”

He added: “So when the same content is transferred to PVOD and then transmitted, it goes up again. As films move from window to window, their overall value increases more and more. We have seen this clearly demonstrated Batman Y Elvis. “

Warner Bros. Discovery: The combination of HBO Max and Discovery + Streamer will launch in the United States in summer 2023

Batman, The first film to bring Warner back to her theatrical release strategy since experimenting with 2021, it grossed $ 369.3 million nationwide and $ 771 million worldwide. Meanwhile, Baz Luhrman Elvis It brought teens back to the Covid era in a big way, grossing $ 131 million nationwide, $ 237 million worldwide.

“When it comes to streaming, our top priority right now is to launch an integrated SVOD service,” said Zaslav.

“There has been a lot of experimentation in our industry and that’s why we are all smarter. Warner Bros. At Discovery, we firmly believe in the importance of maintaining choice and returning to a strategic mix of window and delivery options, ”said the CEO.

The Pandemic Theatrical Day and Date Plan has begun, which saw films screened simultaneously in theaters on HBO Max for its first 28 days (before hitting theaters full in the second month). Wonder Woman 1984 Christmas 2020, when most theaters, including those in New York and Los Angeles, are closed. Gross was a staggering $ 46 million nationally and $ 170 million globally.

However, even as theaters opened in a big way in the second quarter of 2021 and other studios returned to the theatrical model, Warner continued with its day-and-date model on HBO Max, which did not benefit from the box office movies. . : James Gunn’s DC title. the suicide squad He died with $ 55.8 million, compared with the previous stake’s domestic gross of $ 325.1 million. Only two films exceeded $ 100 million in the US / Canada: Dune Y Godzilla vs Kong – And the thinking in the industry at large is that these films could make a lot more money, despite Kilar and Co.’s insistence that the commercial move has increased HBO Max subscribers.