Steve Goldstein for The New York Times
Barry Meyer, left, the C.E.O. of
Warner Brothers, and Alan Horn,
president, are cutting costs as the
industry confronts changes in
movie-viewing habits.
Posted on 11/06/2005 3:06:36 AM PST by Pharmboy
Steve Goldstein for The New York Times
Barry Meyer, left, the C.E.O. of
Warner Brothers, and Alan Horn,
president, are cutting costs as the
industry confronts changes in
movie-viewing habits.
BY all outward appearances, Warner Brothers Entertainment should be having one of its best years ever. For the 21st year in a row, it is expected to show a profit, propelled by a string of television hits like "ER," "The O.C." and "Friends," which is a hot seller on DVD. Warner has also revitalized its DC Comics movie franchise with the summer hit "Batman Begins." And later this month, it will release "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," the fourth installment of a juggernaut that has already brought in $3.7 billion.
But instead of the popping of Champagne corks, the sound you are likely to hear on the Warner lot is that of a cleaver falling. Executives have been poring over thick binders filled with next year's budget, hoping to cut hundreds of millions in studio expenses. Warner Brothers, the television and film production unit of Time Warner, is anticipating a slowdown in growth in its lucrative home video division. And that, combined with rising costs and uncertainty about new forms of digital distribution, has the studio fretting about its growth prospects.
On Tuesday, Warner laid off 260 employees, or about 6 percent of its staff of 4,500 in Burbank, Calif., with more job cuts expected overseas. And the studio is starting to re-evaluate everything from when and where it markets movies to how and what it pays its stars. Indeed, Warner executives met recently with agents at Creative Artists Agency and warned that top-tier actors, directors and producers would have to be flexible on upfront fees or else movies would be harder to make.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I used to go to movies- to be entertained, not lectured.
I literally can't recall the last movie I paid to see, it has been so long ago... all they make nowadays ( to judge from the trailers I see ) are ripoffs of old plots, movies about cartoon characters ( for Gawd's sake! ), and "stuff about the Future"-- a "future" where everything is wet, dark, and scary, and everything blows up or shoots lightning bolts. It's all faux... even the sex is Faux.
Give me a break- this trash might entertain a kid, but it bores me.
I read some other posting that FX costs are going through the roof. I'd pay to see a movie with a better plot than seeing catwoman flying through the air like a troglodyte from a scifi flick.
And further, when they make a movie with carefully crafted dialogue and good acting (without explosions, etc.), they're pushing abortion or mercy killing or global warming because of the US or whatever.
Music is the same way. Notice how many top rated songs are remakes of old hits? And when was the last time you listened to an FM station and heard them stray from the 20 or 30 songs approved by their format?
The entertainment industry sucks. We can find more interesting things to do on the net, (or in REAL LIFE, imagine that...) and customize our content too.
Amen, to that. Today's "music" is the worst ever. Either they're whining or screaming and they call it singing.
On PBS last night I watched the "Celtic Women" again. Awesome vocals and orchestration.
Compare that to hip hop or heavy metal garbage and it's no wonder the music 'industry' is dying. It should.
I like a ton of the stuff they put out, not a lot of it is preacher liberal trash. I don't think their problem is sales from reading that article.
I think the problem is Time Warner in general is run like crap.
This thread is about movies not Michael Jackson. hee hee.
Plus, all the "celebrities" are manufactured by the PR guys. There is not one real person out there whom I would deeem a 'star'. Where are the true movie stars anymore?? Where are the real musicians? Not the ones appearing (and made by) MTV? Shows like American Idol demonstrate the idiocy of today's music business. These people are nothing and have nothing to offer. Comments??
It's amazing to me that the Hollywood honchos don't get it. Like liberal academics they are so stuck in their own stagnant sub-culture that they can't see that the world is leaving them behind. Until they learn to "Shut Up and Sing" they are going to lose more and more money.
Shut Up And Sing is correct. And furthermore, the sooner that rap and hip-hop go the way of the dodo the better off the society will be. I, for one, am not holding my breath waiting for this to occur...SSZ
The "little people" who have been laid off at warner can thank the "celebs" and studio for putting politics above entertainment.
bttt
As the economy feels the pinch of rising energy costs the film industry will continue to suffer.
Hollywood needs new blood, fire everyone that now works in an executive posistion and fill with midwestern kids at 1/3 the wage. Do you think that the results could be any worse?
Someone called me in a poll some time back about movie going habits. I used to go once a week. I even used to give credence to and watch the award shows until shortly before the release of Farenheit 9/11. Now I almost never go, which I told the person, and I turn off the award shows in favor of news or old movies or sports.
In fact, I practically yelled at the pollster to tell her supervisors that I will not go and spend my money as long as Hollywood chooses to shove political statements and garbage from the left down my throat. I told her that I will not be lectured by high school dropouts and spolied celebrities who've no experience with hardship and real life, and that her supervisors need to get this message to Hollywood if Hollywood wants me to patronize their TV shows and movies. Finally, I told her I tell all my friends and acquaintances this same message over and over.
I felt a little bit bad about being angry with a pollster. Only a little bit.
I anyone is trolling here from the West Left Coast Hollywood crowd, do the math. I am not alone.
HAHA...excellent suggestion. Pick random kids from the senior classes from metro Indianapolis, Omaha, Moline, etc. and let them pick the properties to develop. Just pay 'em 12 bucks an hour and they'll do fine.
...and I bet they took you off the polling lists after your tirade (a tirade that I could not agree with more)! Good job.
It costs $50.00 to take my teenaged grandson to a movie, even if I can find one that we both like. And half the time the fifteen minutes of advertisements before the show include "public service" propaganda touting the gay agenda, lecturing us about recycling and cutting back on energy use, and demanding that we quit smoking. This in a theatre where popcorn costs $10.00 a bucket and all the buckets end up on the floor! Not to mention the large number of "children" (30 and under) blabbering continually throughout the program, either on their cell phones or to one another -- "so I'm like, whatever!" -- and the crying, struggling toddlers who have to go to the washroom every three or four minutes.
Going to the movies is not worth the trouble anymore. Except for Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia, I'm staying home.
You are correct of course. I dont know much about American Idol since I dont watch it, and just the trailers for shows such as queer eye for the straight guy ,and fear factor make me want to barf. Saturday Night Live needs to be replaced by showing an old silent movie--much funnier--.Country Music today sucks, pop music sucks. Rap isnt even music, just some buttwipe mumbling incoherent rhymes that I never understand because you have to listen 5 times to figure out what the asswipe is saying and I would never listen the first time
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