Movies Update: Warner's HBO Max "day and date" streaming decision encountering major blowback from Hollywood talent

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Nolan is NOT PLEASED by this AT ALL:

 

Christopher Nolan Rips HBO Max as "Worst Streaming Service," Denounces Warner Bros.' Plan (The Hollywood Reporter)

Quote

“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,” filmmaker Christopher Nolan, whose relationship with Warners dates back to Insomnia in 2002, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

 

Added Nolan: “Warner Bros. had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere, both in theaters and in the home, and they are dismantling it as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense, and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”

 

Some more on the fallout from this decision:

 

Warner Bros. Trades Box Office for HBO Max, but Stars Still Want Their Money - The New York Times

WWW.NYTIMES.COM

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If studios are no longer trying to maximize ticket sales, what will that mean for often lucrative pay packages tied to a film’s performance in theaters?

 

 

[Kal-El814]

WAH, Nolan, WAH.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

WAH, Nolan, WAH.

 

He might be whining, but the others DO have a valid point when it comes to how they're gonna get paid  with this new distribution structure.

[Jason]

3 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

He might be whining, but the others DO have a valid point when it comes to how they're gonna get paid  with this new distribution structure.

 

Especially for contracts that were signed before the switch to the new distribution structure. Seems like they'd have a pretty easy "they're trying to weasel out of paying us" angle if it wound up in court.

[Kal-El814]

1 minute ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

He might be whining, but the others DO have a valid point when it comes to how they're gonna get paid  with this new distribution structure.

Kidding aside, my admittedly limited understanding of the industry still lets me know that he's right about that.

 

Someone's going to figure it out though, and the right solution isn't to just hold fast.

 

Regardless I'm going to watch Inception on my iPhone with only one headphone on tonight just so he feels a chill run down his spine.

[Joe]

Nolan’s a bit of a turd, ain’t he?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

Especially for contracts that were signed before the switch to the new distribution structure. Seems like they'd have a pretty easy "they're trying to weasel out of paying us" angle if it wound up in court.

 

I would absolutely take AT&T/WB to court immediately if I was in their position.

[Keyser_Soze]

How dare I not get millions of dollars!

Weren't these the nice people who sang us a wonderful song at the beginning of the pandemic?

[Jason]

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I would absolutely take AT&T/WB to court immediately if I was in their position.

 

And given the blatant incompetence at AT&T--how many times have they raised DirecTV prices this year alone?--it really wouldn't surprise me if this actually is to at least some extent a hairbraned scheme to try to get out of paying the actors that nobody bothered trying to think through.

[skillzdadirecta]

You would have thought they would have discussed this with all stakeholders before making the announcement. I guess not.

[CitizenVectron]

7 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

You would have thought they would have discussed this with all stakeholders before making the announcement. I guess not.

 

Welcome to the world of upper management!

[GeneticBlueprint]

Anti Hollywood but extremely pro consumer. This will be a fun tightrope walk to watch. I wonder which side they'll fall of or if they'll make it to the other side.

[Jason]

1 hour ago, CitizenVectron said:

Welcome to the world of AT&T upper management!

 

[TwinIon]

This CNBC article about how these decisions came together is a good read for those interested. Two things really stick out: First of all, that AT&T's new CEO is operating under the (hardly unique) assumption that streaming is going to eat all television and most movie revenue. For comparison, broadcast TV is ~$60B, pay TV is worth ~$120B, total box office gross is ~$11B, and streaming is worth ~$50B. There's a belief that streaming will be in the hundreds of billions, but timelines differ greatly. The other thing is just how much AT&T CEO John Stankey and WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar are willing to completely blow up Warner in order to really compete with Netflix.

 

Killing off theatrical release windows is just one more step in the direction they've recently taken.

[legend]

On 12/7/2020 at 11:36 AM, CitizenVectron said:

So...turns out Legendary (who funded 75% of Dune, amongst other things) wasn't consulted on this by WB, and may sue to stop the move to HBO Max:

 

Bart & Fleming: While WGA, CAA & WME Fight In Court, Streamers Rewrite Movie Paydays; Will Legendary Challenge WarnerMedia Over ‘Dune’ & Godzilla Vs. Kong’ HBO Max Move?

DEADLINE.COM

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While WGA, CAA & WME Fight In Court, Streamers Rewrite movie payday Rules; Will Legendary Challenge Over 'Dune' & Godzilla Vs. Kong?'

 

Apparently Netflix offered up to $250 million to get Godzilla, but WB turned it down. This will be interesting...I wonder how much say Legendary has on how and where the movies are screened?

 

 

Damn it, this sounds like a completely reasonable objection, but Dune is what I want on streaming most of all.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

@TwinIon - that CNBC article was quite enlightening!

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I’m looking forward to Wonder Woman 84, and I’ll probably just watch it on HBO MAX, but fuck Warner bros for the Dec 25th release date. 
 

let those poor theater employees be home with THEIR families for Christmas. For fucks sake. Release the movie Dec 26. Be a human being for one fucking day out of the year. 
 

I hated this as a retail employee, and I hate it still for any retail and service employees that are forced to work on Christmas by bosses who will be giving themselves 4+ day weekend with paid holiday time. 

[skillzdadirecta]

12 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I’m looking forward to Wonder Woman 84, and I’ll probably just watch it on HBO MAX, but fuck Warner bros for the Dec 25th release date. 
 

let those poor theater employees be home with THEIR families for Christmas. For fucks sake. Release the movie Dec 26. Be a human being for one fucking day out of the year. 
 

I hated this as a retail employee, and I hate it still for any retail and service employees that are forced to work on Christmas by bosses who will be giving themselves 4+ day weekend with paid holiday time. 

What about the poor employees who don't celebrate/give a fuck about Christmas and would rather work and earn double time?

[LazyPiranha]

On the legal side of these I completely understand that people are pissed about this decision.

 

On the other hand, holy fucking shit can you imagine publicly whining about this in a world where food pantry lines are stretching across the country?  Waaaah, waaaah, my percentages!  You put up a shit load of money for a lizard beating the shit out of a monkey, get over it.

[Jason]

55 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I’m looking forward to Wonder Woman 84, and I’ll probably just watch it on HBO MAX, but fuck Warner bros for the Dec 25th release date. 
 

let those poor theater employees be home with THEIR families for Christmas. For fucks sake. Release the movie Dec 26. Be a human being for one fucking day out of the year. 
 

I hated this as a retail employee, and I hate it still for any retail and service employees that are forced to work on Christmas by bosses who will be giving themselves 4+ day weekend with paid holiday time. 

 

lol bruh movie theaters have ALWAYS been the only fucking thing open on Christmas other than Chinese restaurants. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

34 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

What about the poor employees who don't celebrate/give a fuck about Christmas and would rather work and earn double time?

sure. But what happens when only 1 employee volunteers? 
 

Ive worked retail for far too many years. A paid day off, especially on a national holiday is far more often perceived as preferable to dealing with over-entitled public. 

[Fizzzzle]

3 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

lol bruh movie theaters have ALWAYS been the only fucking thing open on Christmas other than Chinese restaurants. 

And strip clubs.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

3 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

lol bruh movie theaters have ALWAYS been the only fucking thing open on Christmas other than Chinese restaurants. 

them and Blockbuster. I worked every Christmas Day every year I was employed by Blockbuster. 

[Brick]

The outrage from this is huge, and I wonder if it's too late for WB to reverse this decision, and what happens if they do. They've fucked themselves either way. 

[GeneticBlueprint]

11 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

them and Blockbuster. I worked every Christmas Day every year I was employed by Blockbuster. 

 

Yeah. I worked at Hollywood Video for about four years when in high school and my first little bit at college. I worked every Christmas and Thanksgiving. Nobody wanted to be there because customers are in the absolute worst moods those days. And so are the employees.

[Keyser_Soze]

33 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

Yeah. I worked at Hollywood Video for about four years when in high school and my first little bit at college. I worked every Christmas and Thanksgiving. Nobody wanted to be there because customers are in the absolute worst moods those days. And so are the employees.

 

On the flip side I've known people who WANT to work on those days because they just want the extra money or don't care about the holiday.

[Jason]

38 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

Yeah. I worked at Hollywood Video for about four years when in high school and my first little bit at college. I worked every Christmas and Thanksgiving. Nobody wanted to be there because customers are in the absolute worst moods those days. And so are the employees.

 

You're all forgetting about the Jews and other non-Christians bored out of their fucking skulls on Christmas Day. 

[Spork3245]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

You're all forgetting about the Jews and other non-Christians bored out of their fucking skulls on Christmas Day. 

 

 

[GeneticBlueprint]

14 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

On the flip side I've known people who WANT to work on those days because they just want the extra money or don't care about the holiday.

 

Spawn acknowledged that. And I agree with him. There's always one guy. But almost everybody else is miserable.

 

10 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

You're all forgetting about the Jews and other non-Christians bored out of their fucking skulls on Christmas Day. 

 

Sounds like an east coast problem to me.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Denis Villeneuve joins the fray:

 

‘Dune’ Director Denis Villeneuve Blasts HBO Max Deal (EXCLUSIVE)

VARIETY.COM

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I learned in the news that Warner Bros. has decided to release "Dune" on HBO MAX at the same time as our theatrical release.

 

[silentbob]

I worked 12 years straight on Xmas eve/day and I did it for the money. It was at one time double time and a half pay, and then went to time and half pay with a 10 past weeks divided by 40 as bonus pay. So they saved themselves a ton of money because some people who worked only had a 4 hour shift a week and barely got anything in bonus pay. I’m glad I don’t work with my current job on those days and my pay rate and amount paid is more then back then. My old theatre manager stays in touch with us, and just gave my sister a ton of candy for gingerbread houses because they were gonna throw it out. She said this year will be the first time in 26 years that she has had Xmas day off. 

[Bacon]

NO let me watch Dune at home! 

[SimpleG]

12 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Denis Villeneuve joins the fray:

 

‘Dune’ Director Denis Villeneuve Blasts HBO Max Deal (EXCLUSIVE)

VARIETY.COM

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I learned in the news that Warner Bros. has decided to release "Dune" on HBO MAX at the same time as our theatrical release.

 

Even though I am not fan of movie theaters I understand his frustrations. But even with a vaccine I have my doubts about things returning to normal, people are going to be gun shy about large indoor gathering for possibly a long time.

[Massdriver]

What they're doing is the future in 5 years or so, but I think it's premature, and certainly the way AT&T executed this burned some bridges. Disney not following with a similar bold plan kind of shows that they are desperate to build HBO Max. 

 

 I think people are ready to go back to movie theatres as soon as covid numbers go down after a huge vaccine roll out. People are tired of being stuck in their houses.

[EternallDarkness]

On 12/7/2020 at 10:21 PM, Keyser_Soze said:

How dare I not get millions of dollars!

Weren't these the nice people who sang us a wonderful song at the beginning of the pandemic?

 

 

I still cringe at the thought of that video