Can Hollywood Evade the Death Eaters?

NY Times ^ | November 6, 2005 | LAURA M. HOLSON

[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.

[lawgirl]

we need to the film industry what foxnews is to the MSM- then you'll see a studio that makes some serious dough.

[mel]

I do want to see the Johnny Cash movie. I do like Reese Witherspoon.

[Tempest]

They're worried about their large profit margins being cut into by the looming media format of HD-DVD Vs. Blu-ray. The ever altruistic (with other people money) nature of Hollywood has decided to jettison the lowly expendable workers in order to keep themselves fully nourished with their daily supply of caviar and martinis.

[mel]

I know they are limiting the number of people who can see their movies so they are basically shooting themselves in the foot. I am becoming fond of stuff that was on BBC or earlier series such as Centennial, Vanity Fair, Forsyte Saga

[Liberty Valance]

Halliburton was scheduled to revamp Hollywood but they just got a new contract to rebuild the Paris suburbs as soon as the levees in New Orleans are finished ;o) /s/

[Calvin Locke]

You mean movies about/with "gay cowboys eating pudding" is a genre that won't cut it with audiences?

[KateatRFM]

No, church ads showing mainstream churches with burly bouncers turning away gay couples -- but welcoming them to the Methodist Church -- won't cut it here.

[q_an_a]

you are welcome. if you like Poland then the little things in this each one hour movie will tug at you.

[Sam the Sham]

But then again, that is when the auteurs took over. Guys who knew nothing of real life and real people but knew every shot in "Citizen Kane". So inevitably movies become so self-referential that we have a situation like now where every romantic comedy recycles the same stupid cliches and every action adventure movie has been Bruckheimered to death.