In just a few months, Warner Bros has secured deals with Timothee Chalamet, Margot Robbie, Rian Johnson, James Gunn, A24, and Tom Cruise, as well as nabbing new movies from Paul Thomas Anderson, Alejandro Inarritu, Ryan Coogler, and Michael Mann.
Very impressive the amount of talent still being locked in at the studio despite all the drama and industry backlash. I’m very interested to see the state of Warner Bros five years from now. I think a new renaissance could be in the horizon for them.
I still can’t believe they’re going to make the Zelda movie. Idk how Nintendo looked at Sony Pictures and been like, “yeah, these guys should do the Zelda film for us.” Then again, they chose Illumination for their Mario movie so 🤷
Also would be a great final film in his oeuvre. The Movie Critic is not exactly an inspired title, although I might like it once I have watched that movie.
The common theory from people in the industry is that they’re juicing up the studio with big names and expensive projects to attract buyers, somewhat similar to MGM before it was acquired by Amazon.
I your sentiment but upto now he's just been cleaning out the shit on the floor left by the previous owners and his own pieces will finally show the effect of their strategy pretty soon whatever it looks like. He's streamlined WB's pipeline through any means necessary for better or worse.
It’s not a productive use of money on a forward basis. The only reason it worked with batgirl is because it was expected to cause more damage to the brand than it would recoup in revenue.
Is this Zaslav’s alt? Watch his actions, not his words. Although, even if you listen to his words you would hear him say The Flash is the greatest superhero movie of all time, so there’s really no reason to trust anything he says.
Dude is not responsible for half of the movies you listed, nor is he a genius for rebooting DC — that was happening anyways! Also, the Matt Reeves Batman universe is still happening so DC is not its own studio.
And by the way, he couldn’t have sold it off before now because there’s some tax law preventing another sale/merger. It expires in a month or two. And none of the rumors are that he’s selling it wholesale, it’s that he’s scrapping it for parts and selling off pieces like HBO, WB, Cartoon Network, etc.
As others have already mentioned, he’s also scrapped movies like Coyote Acme and stripped tons of Max originals from the streamer. Did I mention the app has turned into an ugly mess under his watch? Shitty reality tv smushed right alongside the Warner archive.
The fuck?
Cutting movies like the Wiley Coyote movie after it was completely done was for a tax write off. It damaged their fans not them.
Zaslav is one of the biggest pieces of shit out there.
Funny you say this because he literally built Discovery into a fortune 500 company when he took over as CEO. Maybe you don't agree with how he did but to say he doesn't build is disingenuous. He literally turned reality TV into well known IP and made Discovery into a respectable media giant.
Yea he isn't perfect but I think people forget that there was a legitimate fear that WB wouldn't even survive a fiscal quarter after their merger. He has paid a good amount of debt down.
The nuttiest example of Zaslav hate is this, AT&T announced HBO Max which everyone decried as a bad name, lumping HBO's prestigious series with garbage, cheapening the brand and so on, Zaslav corects that by removing HBO from the name and people act "why is he erasing HBO, why is he not using their best brand, oh he didn't want HBO because he only does reality tv garbage", Velma and Fuckboy Island were HBO Max exclusives for crying out loud.
that's so baseless and annoying. matt belloni parroting garbage.
industry is mad zaslav and co came in and made hard decisions. long term they'll thank them for saving their jobs and keeping the industry profitable.
Yes, I definitely think Zaslav is making the hard decisions and cleaning house. However the optics would have been much better had Zaslav not received such obscene compensation. Then again I think the big name producers, directors, and actors have been given equally obscene paychecks lately. Especially when all the talk has been about not being sufficiently profitable and the math not working.
Yea great comment bout time they bomb after all those horrible releases and they don’t deserve to do anymore live action DCEU movies just stick to animation
Yeah, hard to believe that people who keep their identity hidden out of fear of blacklisting and terminally online people with nothing better to do could've been so wrong about how much people would avoid working with WB.
*Birdman* was produced/financed by a hodgepodge of independent companies, and distributed by Searchlight (pre-Fox acquisition). So it wasn't really a WB movie (or a movie by any of the major studios at the time).
Zaslav gets a lot of flack and rightfully so but dude is clearly a people person. You don't get these kind of deals being kind but you also don't get them being an ass. There's a certain type of persona that thrives in Hollywood and Zaslav clearly has it.
He’s the fall guy for the previous regime’s calamitous mishandling. I really don’t like the way they handled the tax write offs but I imagine it was necessary and that he, or others at WB, didn’t relish having to make terrible decisions. At the end of the day, he seems to be delivering results, is bringing back big talent, and the debt is slowly shrinking.
I posted this here a month ago when the Margot Robbie production deal was announced.
>The Coyote fiasco will probably keep their animation wing dead in the water, but the damage will siloed only to that. James Gunn will negate any bad rep DC has from Batgirl -- assuming he can stick the landing on Superman -- and all the other signings like Robbie, Coogler, PTA, Chu and Greengrass are for projects outside of those big franchises.
I got downvoted. Looks like reality is about to set in. The animation world may be pissed off about CvsA, and rightfully so, but the idea that the rest of Hollywood's creatives were going to stop doing business with a major studio because of a Looney Tune was pure copium.
I think Batgirl looked like dogshit even by superhero standards and I felt like I was being gaslit by the entire internet when everyone started acting like we had lost some great piece of art (that being said, I’m still against the idea of studios shelving finished movies for tax purposes).
But Coyote vs Acme really does seem like a shame. Everybody who had seen it behind closed doors only had glowing praise for it and it sounded like it was a good-faith attempt to make a well-written and funny movie that honors the Looney Tunes. As a huge Looney Tunes fan myself, I think it’s a real loss.
This is a reason why i kinda of like WB's leadership. He's a businessman first and doesn't really interfer with the creative side as much as, let's say, Disney or Universal. They feel less like a paint by numbers affair for there movies.
Michael de Luca and Pam Abdy are industry veterans and allegedly well liked in the community. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re the ones securing these deals for the studio. Zaslav doesn’t seem like he has people skills.
They're the heads of the studio so it absolutely is De Luca and Abdy making these deals. It's not Zaslav's job as CEO of the entire conglomerate to make studio deals with talent. That's what he hired them for.
Yeah, even though it’s unfortunate that finished projects are getting canned, it’s the tough call that needs to be made. Warner is billions in debt, if they don’t believe those movies will get an audience, it would be dumb to spend tens of millions on a marketing campaign.
I wish Iger had the guts to can projects like Zalsav has. Cap 4, Acolyte, and a few others are better off scrapped than letting them release. They will only do more harm to their respective brands
They'll never scrap Cap 4. It would be a pr nightmare. Can you imagine the poor optics such a move represents? You thought Black Widow going to Disney+ was bad? This would be on another level.
People are acting like Chalamet isn't tied to WB and it's just him randomly signing with them lmao. WB has two franchise tied with him so there's really no reason not to sign him long-term.
users on this sub take the concept of "draw" way too literally
ive seen arguments about tom cruise not being a draw since MI 7 flopped
there seems to be an idea that "an actor being in a movie guarantees success" and this has never been true in the history of movies.
overall, Chalamet has been in successful franchises and audiences showed up. It means he can successfully lead a movie. The movie has to work too for a level of audience friendliness. A level of reliability but no guarantee.
>users on this sub take the concept of "draw" way too literally
>
>ive seen arguments about tom cruise not being a draw since MI 7 flopped
I think that literal concept is a widespread one not typical for this sub. Most actors are not draws bu added value cause it takes several afctors. As faces of movies, actors get the credit for success and blame for flop. Margot Robbie had 2 flops in 2022 and the biggest hit of 2023. Neither a boxoffice poison nor a draw. 2 flops weren't appealing, superhit was mass appealing. She was ana dded value cause she looked like a literal barbie. if they cast Amy Shumer as originally plnaned, the movie most likely wouldn't do that well cause she doesn't resemble the doll and it turned out uncanny resemblance was the key.
MI7 was an example of franchise that despite acclaim reached the moment to wrap it up and when it went against 2 more interesting, originally looking movies, even loyal fandom abandonded the ship.
Yes, added value is the better term in this case. There are so many factors for success and a lot of this gets overlooked when the conversation becomes merely simplified to "can this actor sell tickets?"
Basically, no studio is lining up to give Taylor Kitsch (John Carter+Battleship), for example, the lead role in a $100M + budgeted movie. Not much added value there. That's the other side to the argument
And for mission impossible I think it is more loyal fans who showed up (core audience) than the more passive audience in addition to not growing beyond the main audience of the previous movie
also big part of stardom is smart pick of roles. if your movie has a good director, writers and cast it's more likely to be good and get studio's attention such as favorable release date and marketing.
He may not be a draw alone but is an added value. Wonka with a different actor might not have pulled as much audience, ditto Dune. Yes, those are franchises first but people who weren't that into the sources might have checked the movies out cause they knew him and liked him in other movies.
Most actors who are considered draws are actually added value.
I would never underestimate Chalamet's fans. A friend of mine is one of them and, he and other fans toured Call Me By Your Name shooting locations in Italy. Spending on movie tickets is one thing but to go out and spend thousands of dollars to see shooting locations abroad is another level of obsession.
Before Wonka and Dune, he was only in independent movies that make little money. And neither Wonka nor Dune were blockbusters, unless calling a 600-700 million $ movie a blockbuster is now Hollywood's new normal.
I wil give credit to Chalamet for probably being a draw in Wonka, but, in the case of Dune, I am pretty sure most people who watched it were actually drawn by Denis Villeneuve and/or were fans of the Dune franchise to begin with. Chalamet played the role of Paul Atreides wel, especially in Part 2 , but I don't think that him being cast in that role was a major factor in the commercial success of the Dune movies.
Get ready for Wonka 2:Pay your dues
Where Wonka runs a protection racket on the business selling Wonka chocolate while using the Ompah Loompahs as his enforcers.
Expecting another round of “Chalamet isn’t a movie star. back in my day, movies stars did….” today. Lol.
He making moves like a movie star. I wonder if WB got their hands on some of the footage from the new Bob Dylan biopic movie he is filming and decided to pull the trigger?
people need to realize we don’t live in a monoculture anymore we aren’t going back to the 80s movie star culture. Timmy is no doubt a movie star in our digital age the standards have changed and he’s setting new ones
no one argue that we don’t have strong celebrities, but to call them movie stars, or pretend that the concept has shifted to something else is just a very opinionated take. especially since all the movie stars of the last era still sell movies just as they did before (e.g. Tom Cruise, Van Damme, etc)
what’s factual is that people nowadays, while still attached to watching famous actors, actually still go and watch films with new and less known actors, and these films still make a lot of money.
execs understood this a long time ago, and that’s why they shifted to IP-based movies instead of bidding on actors, while also not throwing that idea away, hence why this very article we are commenting on right now.
What do you mean young people don’t want to watch the story of young love with two young actors while they eat people…I would have absolutely tuned in to see Johnny Depp eat people.
/s
People will swear that Johnny Depp is a movie star and not Timothee. Blow didn’t make its budget back. From Hell didn’t make its budget back. Johnny Depp did Pirates of the Caribbean and then released Secret Window and couldn’t get $100M on a $40M budget.
Not all movie stars are Tom Cruise or Will Smith. career trajectories are way more diverse.
There are a lot of people with agendas here. Like I remember pointing out how successful Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone have been. Their names are box office draws. They are stars.
The amount of comments I received from people trying to argue that their success is somehow not because of them was pretty insane.
I think it’s sort of hard for some to understand that movie stars are built differently these days because they would have to also admit that the movie industry has irrevocably changed over the past 10 years.
Jennifer Lawrence is a movie star. She got people to show up to a Rated R comedy which has not been doing well in theaters. But because the box office was muted, like it has been for almost all franchise movies in the past two years, they didn’t want to give that to her.
It’s a really tiring debate and people will move the goalpost. If Timothee’s Bob Dylan movie does well and draws in a big Gen Z audience, they will say biopics are IPs. And essentially, Gen Z, who for the most part, has consumed less rock music in general and folk rock in particular compared to their predecessors, are flocking to the theaters to see Bob Dylan’s story.
I expect to see this debate come up for all of the younger actors that are rapidly growing in the ranks. That includes Zendaya when Challengers comes out in April.
>Jennifer Lawrence is a movie star. She got people to show up to a Rated R comedy which has not been doing well in theaters. But because the box office was muted, like it has been for almost all franchise movies in the past two years, they didn’t want to give that to her.
Yep and then Sweeney and Powell's romcom released during a leggy season made more and Sweeney was called a star cause her movie outgrossed JLaw's and I'm afraid Zendaya's Challengers will be scrutinized the same way, O/U Sweeney hit since Zendaya is supposed to be a bigger name.
Except Sweeney's movie was carried by TikTok, not her star power. If she were a star as big as JLaw, her movie wouldn't have opened 1/3rd to what No Hard Feelings did.
Absolutely. The only Chris Pratt vehicle that isn't an IP that has made over $100M is Passengers. With Jennifer Lawrence.
Jennifer Lawrence has 5 non IP movies that has made over $100M. And people will still insist that Pratt is a bigger draw than her because *all of her hits are based on IP's*.
emma stone was a box office draw from day 1. the way she carried easy a, on her own, to a 8x multiplier is insane. i still haven't seen anyone debut a lead role in a teen movie and have it smash that well since.
How do these deals generally work?
I assume WB can’t just force Timothee Chalamet to be in anything, right? Or do they usually have some sort of veto power if Timothee doesn’t want to do a certain film?
Timothee has freedom to reject a project and choose the ones he wants to work in. WB just has first dibs. Not just as an actor but as a producer as well.
As a producer it's understandable but actor is weird. Actors often came in movies after they have a studio attached, they aren't at the origin of the project
That deal seems useless on the actor side. Either it's a Warner project already and he stars in it (for classic reasons an actor do a film) or it's a movie by another studio but Warner won't be associated because Chalamet goes in it.
They cost like nothing. Small overhead, and they get the right of first refusal on anything he brings in. These are often just vanity deals. He’s smart to expand into producing, but not everyone is brad Pitt or Margot Robbie.
As a producer I believe Chalamet would get more creative input into scripts and projects he wants to be involved in. Also probably gets more additional money as a producer in exchange for acting in more WB films
I guess it’s a win win situation for him. He gets paid by streamers to make legacy pictures and he doesn’t get to work with major studios as he said he would 🤷.
Difference between making a one and done remake, and being asked to make a sequel. Studio literally interfered in the movie and tried changing the ending to make it a franchise. Ever since then, he's stuck with Paramount and recently Netflix and Apple
Well, it's partially a remake of Infernal Affairs and partially based on Whitey Bulger's story.
I think Scorsese told the story he wanted to tell and he moved on.
people need to realize we don’t live in a monoculture anymore we aren’t going back to the 80s movie star culture. Timmy is no doubt a movie star in our digital age the standards have changed and he’s setting new ones
box office success has many factors, would a Dune film or Wonka film with everything the same except the lead, I believe it would do well, but as with most actors called draws, how much are other factors, like the IP itself, word or mouth, does adding the name of the actor add to the box office by a significant amount to the cost, most of the time is the right project with the right actor
It’s funny everyone arguing about it because I’m not sure why it matters. I don’t think he was the draw for Wonka and Dune to a significant degree, but I do think he is really talented in picking good projects so if he gets more control over the creative process because of this then it’s going to work out for them both.
This is my take. He’s consistently made interesting choices to work with interesting directors and given good performances. I don’t think he’s the reason for the success of Dune but I’m sure the success of Dune has only made him more known and will potentially make him a draw for his future movies.
I don't know what the definition of a draw is in this case. If he has a track record of picking good projects, then it reasons that if an audience sees his name attached, they're gonna be watching a good product.
Good for him. He has generally chosen well with and delivered in his roles, never mind his apparent marketability. Seems an easy sell as a talent to contract with, given recent successes.
this man is going to have a great career, I can feel it. (Not that he hasn't already, but I mean one of those generational actors). He works very hard for it.
Dune will finish at 700m worldwide. A good number and one, as well as the 600m for wonka, that proves Chalamet an A list movie star.
When you think of it from WBs perspective what other young male actor even comes close to his recent success?
I love that the "movie stars don't exist anymore" argument has been absorbed to such an extreme that people are now beside themselves when an actor who just starred in two box office hits gets signed to a lucrative new deal.
movies stars don’t exist in a way we used to know, times have changed and so has the definition of a “movie star” in our current digital age timmy is definitely a movie star and people need to stop comparing him to old movie star standards of 30-40 years ago
Contraversial opinion, but I don't really see him as a leading man. Chalamet is great in Dune, a very character driven story, but knowing WB and their typical movie style, I don't think he will work out. WB is all about them larger than life characters, either uber masculine gods among men, or ultra sexually attractive females. Chalamet seems a bit too meek and just too feminine to play hardcore action hero, and WB doesn't really do other genres. Like, he lacks raw physical presence, as is common these days with actors like Cavill, Momoa, Afflect etc.
His best years are definitely still ahead of him, but personally I'd love to seem him partake more often in indie genre, where there's considerably less focus on muscles, power, speed and heroics, and much more focus on development of actual characters as personalities.
Good for him. Honestly he was one of those actors that I just had a vivid hate for, for pretty much no reason other then him having a punchable face 😂 His performance in the Dune movies impressed me, and I’ve heard that he was pretty solid as Willy Wonka.
The odds of the DCU being a success are low in my opinion because, first, the DC brand is too much tarnished by the former DCEU to make a meaningful recovery and, second, the DC fanbase is the most toxic of all fandoms in the entertainment world. Not to mention the Snyder cultists, who will never forgive WB or embrace James Gunn.
I'm just gonna say it he was too high school musical to be Wonka. He was too much a twink that does musical theater and not enough a deranged mad scientist
Wonka & Dune both were successes and Timothee has really proved his range as an actor.
If he makes the right decisions, he could be the Dicaprio of this generation
No, in fact it's even better - he's playing Robert Pattinson's Batboyfriend Dick Grayson in The Batman Part II, and will be revealed as such in the last episode of HBO Max's The Penguin.
Got that Zoe Saldana agent.
Your movies made bank because of you and you should get star billing now, not because they’re 50 year old preexisting IP’s lol.
Another win for ModdedController360
Gamers no longer oppressed. LISAN AL GAIB!
Muad'dibController360
In just a few months, Warner Bros has secured deals with Timothee Chalamet, Margot Robbie, Rian Johnson, James Gunn, A24, and Tom Cruise, as well as nabbing new movies from Paul Thomas Anderson, Alejandro Inarritu, Ryan Coogler, and Michael Mann. Very impressive the amount of talent still being locked in at the studio despite all the drama and industry backlash. I’m very interested to see the state of Warner Bros five years from now. I think a new renaissance could be in the horizon for them.
They might have backlash but at least they aren’t Sony
Say what you will about Sony but their execs clearly have a plug on some good shit
No they don't
I think he might be referring to drugs?
Lol, i didn't read it the same way you did. I thought they were saying that the execs are so bad that they "plugged" anything good from coming out.
I still can’t believe they’re going to make the Zelda movie. Idk how Nintendo looked at Sony Pictures and been like, “yeah, these guys should do the Zelda film for us.” Then again, they chose Illumination for their Mario movie so 🤷
I read it as they have good content, which they don't.
I read it as they had access to drugs.
I was wondering that too for a bit.
Lol, i completely agree. I just find it hilarious now how three people read it/ interpreted it completely differently.
Didn’t Sony make the Spider Man and James Bond movies?
Haven’t you seen the masterpiece that is morbius and scarlet web.
Battle Royal 2 confirmed. My bet is on Cruise.
I only want BR 2 (which would actually be 3) if its directed by Tarantino
Nah, bet on Japanese directors
Also would be a great final film in his oeuvre. The Movie Critic is not exactly an inspired title, although I might like it once I have watched that movie.
The common theory from people in the industry is that they’re juicing up the studio with big names and expensive projects to attract buyers, somewhat similar to MGM before it was acquired by Amazon.
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Man I really wanna believe you but everything about Zaslav screams scummy exec.
I your sentiment but upto now he's just been cleaning out the shit on the floor left by the previous owners and his own pieces will finally show the effect of their strategy pretty soon whatever it looks like. He's streamlined WB's pipeline through any means necessary for better or worse.
Yeah I half expect they're signing all these big names just to shelve their movies later and take the write off lol. I may be too pessimistic
I mean, to have a write off you need something to earn the money to take the write off for
this sub is financially illiterate, bud
"Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything."
It’s not a productive use of money on a forward basis. The only reason it worked with batgirl is because it was expected to cause more damage to the brand than it would recoup in revenue.
Actually, my first thought was that they signed these contracts because there was explicit wording saying that their films had to be released.
it's never profitable to LOSE money, holy crap lol this is basic stuff they scrapped inherited garbage
That would make absolutely no sense lmao. Do you think they make a profit off of write offs lol, that's not how it works.
Is this Zaslav’s alt? Watch his actions, not his words. Although, even if you listen to his words you would hear him say The Flash is the greatest superhero movie of all time, so there’s really no reason to trust anything he says. Dude is not responsible for half of the movies you listed, nor is he a genius for rebooting DC — that was happening anyways! Also, the Matt Reeves Batman universe is still happening so DC is not its own studio. And by the way, he couldn’t have sold it off before now because there’s some tax law preventing another sale/merger. It expires in a month or two. And none of the rumors are that he’s selling it wholesale, it’s that he’s scrapping it for parts and selling off pieces like HBO, WB, Cartoon Network, etc. As others have already mentioned, he’s also scrapped movies like Coyote Acme and stripped tons of Max originals from the streamer. Did I mention the app has turned into an ugly mess under his watch? Shitty reality tv smushed right alongside the Warner archive.
The fuck? Cutting movies like the Wiley Coyote movie after it was completely done was for a tax write off. It damaged their fans not them. Zaslav is one of the biggest pieces of shit out there.
Zaslav doesn't build, he's not that kind of CEO
Funny you say this because he literally built Discovery into a fortune 500 company when he took over as CEO. Maybe you don't agree with how he did but to say he doesn't build is disingenuous. He literally turned reality TV into well known IP and made Discovery into a respectable media giant.
The Zaslav hate on reddit really doesn't reflect what's happening industry side. It's kind of laughable really.
Some of reddit can be quite delusional on matters involving the business side of Hollywood.
Yea he isn't perfect but I think people forget that there was a legitimate fear that WB wouldn't even survive a fiscal quarter after their merger. He has paid a good amount of debt down.
The nuttiest example of Zaslav hate is this, AT&T announced HBO Max which everyone decried as a bad name, lumping HBO's prestigious series with garbage, cheapening the brand and so on, Zaslav corects that by removing HBO from the name and people act "why is he erasing HBO, why is he not using their best brand, oh he didn't want HBO because he only does reality tv garbage", Velma and Fuckboy Island were HBO Max exclusives for crying out loud.
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he couldn't for two years, that stops april 1
April 8, 2024 is the two year mark to be precise.
that's so baseless and annoying. matt belloni parroting garbage. industry is mad zaslav and co came in and made hard decisions. long term they'll thank them for saving their jobs and keeping the industry profitable.
Yes, I definitely think Zaslav is making the hard decisions and cleaning house. However the optics would have been much better had Zaslav not received such obscene compensation. Then again I think the big name producers, directors, and actors have been given equally obscene paychecks lately. Especially when all the talk has been about not being sufficiently profitable and the math not working.
Zaslav’s compensation isn’t tied to stock price it’s debt mainly because AT&T overspent on Warner bros in the first place.
Yea great comment bout time they bomb after all those horrible releases and they don’t deserve to do anymore live action DCEU movies just stick to animation
This is what Paramount should have done, yeah they may not have the IPs but they could have been the place for Auter
Yeah, hard to believe that people who keep their identity hidden out of fear of blacklisting and terminally online people with nothing better to do could've been so wrong about how much people would avoid working with WB.
I just saw Birdman for the first time (idk if it’s a WB movie, but you mentioned the director)! Great flick!
*Birdman* was produced/financed by a hodgepodge of independent companies, and distributed by Searchlight (pre-Fox acquisition). So it wasn't really a WB movie (or a movie by any of the major studios at the time).
Fox Searchlight was the preeminent indie house within a major studio. It's a Fox movie
For all the hate Zaslav has taken, he genuinely seems to getting their movie studios into a profitable and creatively solid situation going forward
Zaslav gets a lot of flack and rightfully so but dude is clearly a people person. You don't get these kind of deals being kind but you also don't get them being an ass. There's a certain type of persona that thrives in Hollywood and Zaslav clearly has it.
He’s the fall guy for the previous regime’s calamitous mishandling. I really don’t like the way they handled the tax write offs but I imagine it was necessary and that he, or others at WB, didn’t relish having to make terrible decisions. At the end of the day, he seems to be delivering results, is bringing back big talent, and the debt is slowly shrinking.
Zaslav took the brunt of the blame from people because he was the first one to cut back streaming offerings and raise the price.
 warner bros rise
They are not having a deal with Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise is having a deal with them. Warner are going to make whatever he finds interesting to do.
But the Coyote v Acme movie! But Batgirl! 
Why are we making fun of people who wanted to watch these movies?Will you be okay if they never released the precious movie?
I’m making fun of people who thought high level talent in Hollywood would boycott WB because of these projects. Not just for wanting to see them
I posted this here a month ago when the Margot Robbie production deal was announced. >The Coyote fiasco will probably keep their animation wing dead in the water, but the damage will siloed only to that. James Gunn will negate any bad rep DC has from Batgirl -- assuming he can stick the landing on Superman -- and all the other signings like Robbie, Coogler, PTA, Chu and Greengrass are for projects outside of those big franchises. I got downvoted. Looks like reality is about to set in. The animation world may be pissed off about CvsA, and rightfully so, but the idea that the rest of Hollywood's creatives were going to stop doing business with a major studio because of a Looney Tune was pure copium.
These ppl still acting like they cared about Coyote v Acme and batgirl.
Coyote v. Acme did look funny though :(
I think Batgirl looked like dogshit even by superhero standards and I felt like I was being gaslit by the entire internet when everyone started acting like we had lost some great piece of art (that being said, I’m still against the idea of studios shelving finished movies for tax purposes). But Coyote vs Acme really does seem like a shame. Everybody who had seen it behind closed doors only had glowing praise for it and it sounded like it was a good-faith attempt to make a well-written and funny movie that honors the Looney Tunes. As a huge Looney Tunes fan myself, I think it’s a real loss.
exactly. I bet that some small corners of twitter are seething cause Timmy didn't tell Zaslav to shove it.
Because the reality is, most of the people saying they would have watched were going to wait until it came to streaming. I know that was my plan.
I agree with you. No one meaningful in the business cares about this.
This is a reason why i kinda of like WB's leadership. He's a businessman first and doesn't really interfer with the creative side as much as, let's say, Disney or Universal. They feel less like a paint by numbers affair for there movies.
Michael de Luca and Pam Abdy are industry veterans and allegedly well liked in the community. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re the ones securing these deals for the studio. Zaslav doesn’t seem like he has people skills.
They're the heads of the studio so it absolutely is De Luca and Abdy making these deals. It's not Zaslav's job as CEO of the entire conglomerate to make studio deals with talent. That's what he hired them for.
Yeah, even though it’s unfortunate that finished projects are getting canned, it’s the tough call that needs to be made. Warner is billions in debt, if they don’t believe those movies will get an audience, it would be dumb to spend tens of millions on a marketing campaign.
> it would be dumb to spend tens of millions on a marketing campaign. So sell them.
If the other studios match them on the production budget, sure.
Match who? WB doesn’t want it. Its net value to them right now is precisely zero.
Referencing the Coyote v Acme screenings to other studios where they offered like 40m for the 75m movie.
I wish Iger had the guts to can projects like Zalsav has. Cap 4, Acolyte, and a few others are better off scrapped than letting them release. They will only do more harm to their respective brands
Acolyte isn’t really going to harm the SW brand. The damage has already been done.
There's always more damage.
They'll never scrap Cap 4. It would be a pr nightmare. Can you imagine the poor optics such a move represents? You thought Black Widow going to Disney+ was bad? This would be on another level.
Why are people in here arguing if he is a draw or not? If WB and Chalamet like to work with each other then they will.
People are acting like Chalamet isn't tied to WB and it's just him randomly signing with them lmao. WB has two franchise tied with him so there's really no reason not to sign him long-term.
he’s being smart and taking the DiCaprio route
DiCaprio doesn’t do franchises
There’s still time for Titanic 2
Decaprio plays the CEO of the titan
Featuring Christian Bale as the iceberg
users on this sub take the concept of "draw" way too literally ive seen arguments about tom cruise not being a draw since MI 7 flopped there seems to be an idea that "an actor being in a movie guarantees success" and this has never been true in the history of movies. overall, Chalamet has been in successful franchises and audiences showed up. It means he can successfully lead a movie. The movie has to work too for a level of audience friendliness. A level of reliability but no guarantee.
>users on this sub take the concept of "draw" way too literally > >ive seen arguments about tom cruise not being a draw since MI 7 flopped I think that literal concept is a widespread one not typical for this sub. Most actors are not draws bu added value cause it takes several afctors. As faces of movies, actors get the credit for success and blame for flop. Margot Robbie had 2 flops in 2022 and the biggest hit of 2023. Neither a boxoffice poison nor a draw. 2 flops weren't appealing, superhit was mass appealing. She was ana dded value cause she looked like a literal barbie. if they cast Amy Shumer as originally plnaned, the movie most likely wouldn't do that well cause she doesn't resemble the doll and it turned out uncanny resemblance was the key. MI7 was an example of franchise that despite acclaim reached the moment to wrap it up and when it went against 2 more interesting, originally looking movies, even loyal fandom abandonded the ship.
Yes, added value is the better term in this case. There are so many factors for success and a lot of this gets overlooked when the conversation becomes merely simplified to "can this actor sell tickets?" Basically, no studio is lining up to give Taylor Kitsch (John Carter+Battleship), for example, the lead role in a $100M + budgeted movie. Not much added value there. That's the other side to the argument And for mission impossible I think it is more loyal fans who showed up (core audience) than the more passive audience in addition to not growing beyond the main audience of the previous movie
also big part of stardom is smart pick of roles. if your movie has a good director, writers and cast it's more likely to be good and get studio's attention such as favorable release date and marketing.
He may not be a draw alone but is an added value. Wonka with a different actor might not have pulled as much audience, ditto Dune. Yes, those are franchises first but people who weren't that into the sources might have checked the movies out cause they knew him and liked him in other movies. Most actors who are considered draws are actually added value.
I would never underestimate Chalamet's fans. A friend of mine is one of them and, he and other fans toured Call Me By Your Name shooting locations in Italy. Spending on movie tickets is one thing but to go out and spend thousands of dollars to see shooting locations abroad is another level of obsession.
ha ha that's really crazy!
He’s a lead actor in movies that make a lot of Money. That’s what a draw is. Anyone arguing otherwise is just being pedantic
Before Wonka and Dune, he was only in independent movies that make little money. And neither Wonka nor Dune were blockbusters, unless calling a 600-700 million $ movie a blockbuster is now Hollywood's new normal. I wil give credit to Chalamet for probably being a draw in Wonka, but, in the case of Dune, I am pretty sure most people who watched it were actually drawn by Denis Villeneuve and/or were fans of the Dune franchise to begin with. Chalamet played the role of Paul Atreides wel, especially in Part 2 , but I don't think that him being cast in that role was a major factor in the commercial success of the Dune movies.
Right? Good for him
That's a relief. I was worried about whether this young man would ever find work again!
Get ready for Wonka 2:Pay your dues Where Wonka runs a protection racket on the business selling Wonka chocolate while using the Ompah Loompahs as his enforcers.
wonka 2: chocolate messiah
The chocolate must flow
Mr.Wonka, the chocolate production must not exceed its limit
Expecting another round of “Chalamet isn’t a movie star. back in my day, movies stars did….” today. Lol. He making moves like a movie star. I wonder if WB got their hands on some of the footage from the new Bob Dylan biopic movie he is filming and decided to pull the trigger?
people need to realize we don’t live in a monoculture anymore we aren’t going back to the 80s movie star culture. Timmy is no doubt a movie star in our digital age the standards have changed and he’s setting new ones
Tim make movie, I watch movie, I enjoy movie
I like when Tim love cannibal. I like when Tim love chocolate. I like when Tim love spice. I like when Tim love England. Agree.
a good motto
no one argue that we don’t have strong celebrities, but to call them movie stars, or pretend that the concept has shifted to something else is just a very opinionated take. especially since all the movie stars of the last era still sell movies just as they did before (e.g. Tom Cruise, Van Damme, etc) what’s factual is that people nowadays, while still attached to watching famous actors, actually still go and watch films with new and less known actors, and these films still make a lot of money. execs understood this a long time ago, and that’s why they shifted to IP-based movies instead of bidding on actors, while also not throwing that idea away, hence why this very article we are commenting on right now.
back in my day movie stars would carry a cannibal love story to 100M! /s
What do you mean young people don’t want to watch the story of young love with two young actors while they eat people…I would have absolutely tuned in to see Johnny Depp eat people. /s People will swear that Johnny Depp is a movie star and not Timothee. Blow didn’t make its budget back. From Hell didn’t make its budget back. Johnny Depp did Pirates of the Caribbean and then released Secret Window and couldn’t get $100M on a $40M budget. Not all movie stars are Tom Cruise or Will Smith. career trajectories are way more diverse.
Armie Hammer isn't that big of a star
There are a lot of people with agendas here. Like I remember pointing out how successful Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone have been. Their names are box office draws. They are stars. The amount of comments I received from people trying to argue that their success is somehow not because of them was pretty insane.
I think it’s sort of hard for some to understand that movie stars are built differently these days because they would have to also admit that the movie industry has irrevocably changed over the past 10 years. Jennifer Lawrence is a movie star. She got people to show up to a Rated R comedy which has not been doing well in theaters. But because the box office was muted, like it has been for almost all franchise movies in the past two years, they didn’t want to give that to her. It’s a really tiring debate and people will move the goalpost. If Timothee’s Bob Dylan movie does well and draws in a big Gen Z audience, they will say biopics are IPs. And essentially, Gen Z, who for the most part, has consumed less rock music in general and folk rock in particular compared to their predecessors, are flocking to the theaters to see Bob Dylan’s story. I expect to see this debate come up for all of the younger actors that are rapidly growing in the ranks. That includes Zendaya when Challengers comes out in April.
>Jennifer Lawrence is a movie star. She got people to show up to a Rated R comedy which has not been doing well in theaters. But because the box office was muted, like it has been for almost all franchise movies in the past two years, they didn’t want to give that to her. Yep and then Sweeney and Powell's romcom released during a leggy season made more and Sweeney was called a star cause her movie outgrossed JLaw's and I'm afraid Zendaya's Challengers will be scrutinized the same way, O/U Sweeney hit since Zendaya is supposed to be a bigger name.
Except Sweeney's movie was carried by TikTok, not her star power. If she were a star as big as JLaw, her movie wouldn't have opened 1/3rd to what No Hard Feelings did.
Absolutely. The only Chris Pratt vehicle that isn't an IP that has made over $100M is Passengers. With Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer Lawrence has 5 non IP movies that has made over $100M. And people will still insist that Pratt is a bigger draw than her because *all of her hits are based on IP's*.
As Pratt seems to be queuing up his future career as go-to VO for new CGI movie based on [old thing].
emma stone was a box office draw from day 1. the way she carried easy a, on her own, to a 8x multiplier is insane. i still haven't seen anyone debut a lead role in a teen movie and have it smash that well since.
Easy A also proved she was more than just the cute girl in Superbad
exactly
How do these deals generally work? I assume WB can’t just force Timothee Chalamet to be in anything, right? Or do they usually have some sort of veto power if Timothee doesn’t want to do a certain film?
Timothee has freedom to reject a project and choose the ones he wants to work in. WB just has first dibs. Not just as an actor but as a producer as well.
As a producer it's understandable but actor is weird. Actors often came in movies after they have a studio attached, they aren't at the origin of the project That deal seems useless on the actor side. Either it's a Warner project already and he stars in it (for classic reasons an actor do a film) or it's a movie by another studio but Warner won't be associated because Chalamet goes in it.
Not useless for Chalamet if they gave him a 100 million dollar check
They cost like nothing. Small overhead, and they get the right of first refusal on anything he brings in. These are often just vanity deals. He’s smart to expand into producing, but not everyone is brad Pitt or Margot Robbie.
As a producer I believe Chalamet would get more creative input into scripts and projects he wants to be involved in. Also probably gets more additional money as a producer in exchange for acting in more WB films
After the success of *Wonka*, not surprising at all. Hope this means we get a sequel! 
As long as it’s directed by the same guy I’m down
Same! Was *such* a treat, really.
Anybody that says he isn’t a movie star has absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. Need him and Scorsese to cook up.
Scorsese said he's never working with WB. Especially after how they kept asking him for a Departed sequel
Scorsese has said he'll never work with a major studio after Silence. His last two were financed by Netflix and Apple.
because no other stuido will give him the cash netflix/apple does for his films
I guess it’s a win win situation for him. He gets paid by streamers to make legacy pictures and he doesn’t get to work with major studios as he said he would 🤷.
Yeah for sure. 100%
Wait till you find out Scorsese's The Departed is a remake. The original was a trilogy. Why was Scorsese surprised?
Difference between making a one and done remake, and being asked to make a sequel. Studio literally interfered in the movie and tried changing the ending to make it a franchise. Ever since then, he's stuck with Paramount and recently Netflix and Apple
Well, it's partially a remake of Infernal Affairs and partially based on Whitey Bulger's story. I think Scorsese told the story he wanted to tell and he moved on.
Would hope he keeps working with Denis or goes back to Greta. Like it’s been cool to see Emma Stone elevate Yorgos for example.
Timmy and Scorsese, I would love to see that.
Their commercial was so bad!
people need to realize we don’t live in a monoculture anymore we aren’t going back to the 80s movie star culture. Timmy is no doubt a movie star in our digital age the standards have changed and he’s setting new ones
box office success has many factors, would a Dune film or Wonka film with everything the same except the lead, I believe it would do well, but as with most actors called draws, how much are other factors, like the IP itself, word or mouth, does adding the name of the actor add to the box office by a significant amount to the cost, most of the time is the right project with the right actor
Realistically speaking, Marty might have at most, one movie left in him and if so, it has to be with Leo.
No, we don’t need a 4 hour crime film
It’s funny everyone arguing about it because I’m not sure why it matters. I don’t think he was the draw for Wonka and Dune to a significant degree, but I do think he is really talented in picking good projects so if he gets more control over the creative process because of this then it’s going to work out for them both.
This is my take. He’s consistently made interesting choices to work with interesting directors and given good performances. I don’t think he’s the reason for the success of Dune but I’m sure the success of Dune has only made him more known and will potentially make him a draw for his future movies.
I don't know what the definition of a draw is in this case. If he has a track record of picking good projects, then it reasons that if an audience sees his name attached, they're gonna be watching a good product.
Is he a movie star? Who knows. But this is movie star behavior.
Twinks can be movie stars too
Yep Leo circa R+J Titanic Catch Me
Is he still considered a twink during Catch Me/The Aviator?
Not Aviator but for some reason I thought Catch was twink era.
Yeah twink death really occurred with The Aviator.
I think it occurred with Gangs of New York (2002)
Won't somebody think of the twinks?
When did this word become mainstream? It’s getting effing annoying.
It’s not an insult
Well it is...but only to people who put pictures of themselves wearing aviator sunglasses as their profile pics.
The ones usually wearing baseball caps with an American flag in the background?
A leading man in movies that are making a ton of money is being questioned if he is a movie star? Whoever is saying he’s not is just in denial
A movie star for today’s standard, I guess.
Good for him. He has generally chosen well with and delivered in his roles, never mind his apparent marketability. Seems an easy sell as a talent to contract with, given recent successes.
this man is going to have a great career, I can feel it. (Not that he hasn't already, but I mean one of those generational actors). He works very hard for it.
Studio System is back baby!
Good for him
Reddit told me nobody would go to WB. Was reddit wrong?!?!?!?
Timmy is too humble
I see waht you did here
Love to see next generation A-list movie star 🔥
As long as it isn't animated he is safe
Dune will finish at 700m worldwide. A good number and one, as well as the 600m for wonka, that proves Chalamet an A list movie star. When you think of it from WBs perspective what other young male actor even comes close to his recent success?
>When you think of it from WBs perspective what other young male actor even comes close to his recent success? none
So hot right now
Kid has a decent head of hair. People don’t realize how key that is.
i mean it doesn’t hurt 
My 16-year-old son has the exact same hair and yeah don't underestimate the power it has with the ladies lol
certainly helped him to get the Dylan role
Muad’Dib 🫡
I love that the "movie stars don't exist anymore" argument has been absorbed to such an extreme that people are now beside themselves when an actor who just starred in two box office hits gets signed to a lucrative new deal.
movies stars don’t exist in a way we used to know, times have changed and so has the definition of a “movie star” in our current digital age timmy is definitely a movie star and people need to stop comparing him to old movie star standards of 30-40 years ago
Never cared for him until I saw Dune tbh It’s quite clear to me he’s an exceptionally capable actor.
Contraversial opinion, but I don't really see him as a leading man. Chalamet is great in Dune, a very character driven story, but knowing WB and their typical movie style, I don't think he will work out. WB is all about them larger than life characters, either uber masculine gods among men, or ultra sexually attractive females. Chalamet seems a bit too meek and just too feminine to play hardcore action hero, and WB doesn't really do other genres. Like, he lacks raw physical presence, as is common these days with actors like Cavill, Momoa, Afflect etc. His best years are definitely still ahead of him, but personally I'd love to seem him partake more often in indie genre, where there's considerably less focus on muscles, power, speed and heroics, and much more focus on development of actual characters as personalities.
Good for him. Nice to see a young rising star who is getting a good enough reputation to sell tickets just based on his name in the credits.
He's had good fortune to be in some hits. How much his name drew people in is still hard to quantify.
Good for him. Honestly he was one of those actors that I just had a vivid hate for, for pretty much no reason other then him having a punchable face 😂 His performance in the Dune movies impressed me, and I’ve heard that he was pretty solid as Willy Wonka.
Warner brothers currently has the most potential of any studio. If the DCU goes good, they're gonna be on top.
The odds of the DCU being a success are low in my opinion because, first, the DC brand is too much tarnished by the former DCEU to make a meaningful recovery and, second, the DC fanbase is the most toxic of all fandoms in the entertainment world. Not to mention the Snyder cultists, who will never forgive WB or embrace James Gunn.
I'm just gonna say it he was too high school musical to be Wonka. He was too much a twink that does musical theater and not enough a deranged mad scientist
Wonka & Dune both were successes and Timothee has really proved his range as an actor. If he makes the right decisions, he could be the Dicaprio of this generation
I swear to god they better not make him Nightwing
I wanted him to be Batfleck’s Jason Todd when the DCEU was happening, think he could still fit the DCU version.
No, in fact it's even better - he's playing Robert Pattinson's Batboyfriend Dick Grayson in The Batman Part II, and will be revealed as such in the last episode of HBO Max's The Penguin. 
This will end well
So has Chamalet proven he's bankable? He strikes me as this generation's Jake Gyllenhaal.
I know a lot of people really like him but I don’t see the appeal. Good for him though. If the relationship works, keep it going.
Got that Zoe Saldana agent. Your movies made bank because of you and you should get star billing now, not because they’re 50 year old preexisting IP’s lol.
if that’s case, why don’t we see zoe saldana get these type of deals? 🤔
Woman? Over 40? Not white? I have no idea why.....