Uncharacteristically, Warner Bros Discovery boss David Zaslav seems unhappy with the money the company is spending.
Take a cursory glance and Warner Bros’ slate for 2025 and you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was the ‘filmmaker friendly’ studio of old. The place where directors such as Clint Eastwood would set up shop and stay for decades, where trust and autonomy were foundational to the creative process.
Why is that? Because the studio’s slate for this year is packed with expensive, auteur-driven projects that are set to take creative risks: you’ve got Bong Joon-ho’s imminent Mickey 17 ($100m production budget, plus marketing and distribution), Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film (at least $130m), Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride ($100m) and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (an estimated $90m).
While we get the feeling that studio chief David Zaslav wants to be seen as a steward of cinema, his actions have often betrayed a cynical streak towards art. Multiple films have been deleted at his behest, despite being nearly completed, so that the studio can make a saving on its tax bill.
Cherished assets have been sold and even staff crucial to the running of TCM, Warner Bros’ classic movie network, were laid off, causing filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson to publicly complain about Zaslav’s management.
A new report at Bloomberg suggests that Zaslav is far from happy with the direction of these auteur-driven projects, with the outlet claiming that he recently gave quite the ticking off to Warner Bros Pictures co-chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy about the performance of Joker: Folie à Deux. Zaslav reportedly ‘railed against the performance of the film… [and] decried the mounting costs of the studio’s upcoming releases.’
Read more: 10 major films that have been shelved or scrapped over the past decade
While Zaslav may be pointing the finger at his top executives, the problem here is surely that under his leadership, Warner Bros swings wildly into overreaction, creating a company which lacks stability and always seems to be reacting to its own mistakes rather than leaning into its successes.
2019’s Joker was one such success. But rather than commission more interesting and eye-catching projects at that $50m price tag, the years since have seen the studio throw increasing amounts of cash at filmmakers, essentially setting them up to commercially fail. The reported price tag for Paul Thomas Anderson’s next outing is just one example: a lot of money given that the director has never released a film in America that has made more than $76m.
In the midst of these wild overreactions, the material suffers. What might well be Clint Eastwood’s final film (and a banger of a film it is) doesn’t even merit a cinema release. Over at Warner Bros Games, Monolith Studios (developer of the Shadow Of Mordor series) is shuttered, and with them goes its excellent Nemesis system (a novel game mechanic now patented by Warner Bros and likely to never see the light of day for years).
When some of this year’s big auteur-driven projects fail to make a commercial return for Warner Bros, we can’t help but wonder what comes next. How far will the pendulum swing in the other direction? Time will tell, but in the short term, let’s at least enjoy the films while we have them. Assuming Zaslav doesn’t delete them first.
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