Holy Bold Move, Batman
We chatted about this on last week's podcast, but I'd like to dive into it more. I am referring, of course, to Warner Bros' decision to shelf The Batgirl film. Mostly everyone, from the talent community to execs, have blasted the move as one of short-sightedness and flogged it as a continuation of Warner Bros' destruction of its talent relations, post Project Popcorn (the previous regime's plan to dump all its 2021 releases on HBOMax.) I, however, disagree with that assessment.
I think this was a bold and necessary move by Zaslav and his new team at Warner Bros. to reset an adrift strategy. Was it ruthless? Yes. Necessary? Yes. Discovery WarnerBros (DWB) is holding to almost $50 billion (!!!) in debt from the merger, and Zaslav has promised to shrink that significantly. According to reports, Batgirl was also in the neighborhood of $20 million over budget just from COVID expenses. That, in addition, to the apparent lousy test screening numbers, made the decision even more obvious. Warner Bros. has some stellar IP that has been mismanaged throughout the last few years. This is not entirely anyone's fault but more the result of the revolving leadership changes at Warner Bros. over the years. This may not even be the last one if some rumors at to be believed (Comcast, anyone?) Now, take this all on board and look at it from Zaslav's perspective; facing restless investors and promises he made to right the ship, he didn't believe in the movie, and neither did his new film chiefs, Michael DeLuca and Pam Abdy, so why throw more money after bad? I would argue this needs to happen more, not less.
Countless times, as a marketer, I found myself saving a movie from itself, as many in my position often do. In other words, the film was complete garbage, testing in the toilet, and it was up to marketing to save the movie. Now, I'm sure countless production people will tell me sometimes the film goes off the rails, and I get that, but at the same time, recognition needs to take place that no amount of money will ever save as film. Yes, those conversations with the creative talent will undoubtedly be tough but guess what, President of Production, that's why you're paid the big salary. Will it cause tension with talent, probably, but you know what, that may be a good thing. After the countless parade of horribles that was the earnings reports from the big conglomerates, the spending can't continue on the same course. And maybe this will force those involved in making the movie to show a little more discipline to avoid pushing their film into the "might get canceled" bin.
COVID has brought many painful changes to the business but let's be honest; these are necessary changes. As I've been saying, until I'm blue in the face, our current industry leadership is driving us off a cliff, and at the very least, Zaslav has shown a willingness to pump the breaks on reckless spending and apply a modicum of quality control where it was needed. So keep it up, Zas the Butcher, and let's see what the future brings, at least until the next corporate warlords take over.
A Knife that Cuts Both Ways
I've been quite fortunate in my career to work on both sides of the movie biz: production and marketing. As such, I have a unique perspective on the oft-repeated debate of whether marketing is to be blamed for a movie's failure or production. Interestingly enough, when I was in production, we often complained about marketing, and when I moved to marketing, we blamed production. There is, of course, the oft-repeated phrase: "Opening weekend is up to marketing; after that, it's the movie's job." And for the most part, that essentially holds, but I don't want to focus too much on this rolling debate. I want to discuss the issue of layoffs almost always hitting marketing before production.
I bring this up, again referencing DWB and their massive debt load and the expected layoffs if Zaslav is to deliver on the promised $3 billion in synergy savings. Most of the time, the higher-ups get canned and walk away with their golden parachutes, especially after mergers like WB and Discovery. Then, the knife comes for the lower rungs on the ladder, and almost always, marketing is affected while the production execs live to see another day. What's so odd about this is most times, the productions VPs and above almost always make more than the marketing VPs and above, so it doesn't make much sense from a cost perspective. Yes, it is true; there are typically more people in marketing, so for headcount, it makes sense, but I'd like to see some level of slicing on both sides of the movie production aisle.
It is as tough to make a good movie as it is to market it. I often wish we, as marketers, had more time to work on the movie we're expected to sell, but that's not always the case. All this to say, Mr. Z, that when the time comes for the cuts, be sure to look at both production and marketing. We all work hard but if the cuts must be made, let's apply them to both partners in the movie-making dance (but honestly, it's really production's fault.)
Pages from the Commonplace Book
This week, we lost a legend in historical writing, David McCullough. He died Sunday at the age of 89, a mere two months after the death of his wife. He wrote some great historical biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams, both of which were turned into outstanding HBO miniseries. He was also a legendary narrator and host of countless documentaries, including Ken Burns' The Civil War. He was also a staunch advocate for the teaching of American history and its importance in cultivating an informed citizenry, something all sides can agree we've been lacking the past few years:
"History is not just about dates and quotations. And it's not just about politics, the military and social issues, though much of it of course is about that. It's about everything. It's about life history. It's human. And we have to see it that way. We have to teach it that way. We have to read that way. It's about art, music, literature, money, science, love - the human experience."
When you think of history or your history teacher, I know most of you conjure images of the lacrosse coach who could care less about the subject he's teaching or simply the memorization of dates. I've always seen it as McCullough sees it: dramatic stories of the human experience. Hopefully, the past few years have taught us that appreciating history as such is as important now as it has ever been.
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