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Wants to increase WB's theatrical slate to 20-25 titles a year (from 17), meeting with JK Rowling to make fresh HP content for HBO Max.
Mr. Zaslav’s team is undoing some of the previous regime’s programming strategy, specifically plans to make original movies for HBO Max, people familiar with the matter said. The team scratched “The Wonder Twins,” a live-action film based on the Warner Bros.-owned DC Comics superhero duo, because Mr. Zaslav deemed its estimated $75 million-plus budget too high and its return too limited for a made-for-streaming movie, the people said.
Instead, Mr. Zaslav wants Warner Bros. to focus on increasing its number of theatrical releases to between 20 and 25 a year, a person familiar with his thinking said. Theatrical movies also tend to perform better on HBO Max than movies made exclusively for the service. Last year, Warner Bros. released 17 movies.
Current and former Warner Bros. executives said drawing people back into theaters remains difficult for movies that aren’t crowd-pleasers like “Batman” and “Spider-Man.”
At the same time, Mr. Zaslav is looking to make fresh “Harry Potter”-related content for HBO Max—Warner Bros. made all the wizarding franchise’s movies—people familiar with his thinking said, and plans to meet with creator J.K. Rowling in the coming weeks to discuss the matter
Variety & WSJ confirm That Hashtag Show's Report from May 3rd, Wonder Twins movie is dead. Was budgeted at $75 million May 18, 13:09
That's the same budget Batgirl & Blue Beetle have/had (may go up with change to theatrical releases) {nm} May 18, 13:09
Zaslav (per WSJ) personally killed it, he felt it was too much to spend on a streaming exclusive title. {nm} May 18, 13:11
Wants to increase WB's theatrical slate to 20-25 titles a year (from 17), meeting with JK Rowling to make fresh HP content for HBO Max. May 18, 13:18
Confirms Belloni's reporting, he's spoken to Alan Horn about returning in a "consulting role" {nm} May 18, 13:19
and he's right (at least for this thing) {nm} May 18, 13:20