Posted on 08/18/2006 4:46:03 AM PDT by abb
Underperformers such as 'Poseidon' have given the studio and investors a sinking feeling.
Last year Warner Bros. President Alan Horn was at the top of his game.
Boy wizard Harry Potter, eccentric candy maker Willy Wonka and crime fighter Batman catapulted Warner to its most profitable year.
But the hot streak ended with a thud. Not even Superman could prevent a crush of movie losses that has shaken the venerable Burbank studio and its affable leader.
The costly disaster movie "Poseidon," director M. Night Shyamalan's fantasy thriller "Lady in the Water," the computer-animated "The Ant Bully" and the urban drama "ATL" could lose more than $120 million combined for Warner and its financial partners, according to one person familiar with the films' finances.
"The price of failure is high," Horn said. "It's not just the financial cost. It's reading about it in the newspaper."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Ping
If you go to a M. Night Shyamalan movie and they haven't soaked the theater ticket in LSD, you ain't going to understand it.
aw. the animaniacs are gonna cry....
Don't worry, Horn. Newspapers are dying off too!
Shyamalan and Quentin Tarantino are two writer/directors who've interested me to the extent that I've been able to watch their art move, in succession, from absolute brilliance to absolute, 100% laughable crap.
It's sad, really.
And, the bad news will continue for WB. With "Oceans 13", and two Leonardo DiCraprio films left to open in the year, the only bright spots that I saw for them were the Harry Potter film and (possibly) the Will Smith film. Will has turned in some pretty decent performances; a lot depends on the script and the story though.
Meanwhile, Hollyweird's continued slide into irrelevance is unabated. Perhaps the old studio system wasn't such a bad idea after all!! At least the studios could control the mouths and the actions of their "stars".
Ditto that -- although I haven't seen either's newest stuff.
Follyweird continues to have most of its leading actors insult America and our President.
It is obvious the American Market for movies is a smaller pie each year.
We will probably see Follyweird relocate to liberal cities in liberal countries and be welcomed as they leave America.
Warner Bros. Having a Rare Down Year?
Oh, sure I believe it (gag).
What happened? Their regular book-cooker (accountant) go to jail?
It depends on the definition of rare, down and is.
Probably needed a tax-write off for their other financial entities.
AOL and Slime Magazine are probably providing all the write offs they need.
Time magazine will probably blame Steve Case.
AOL and Slime Magazine are probably providing all the write offs they need.
CNN already did that.
Write offs are great if you have profits to write off against.
Dick Parsons rules Time Warner.
With most of the MSM, we have to wonder when the write offs will continually be larger than any real profits.
It's been reported that Dick Parson's personal office cost 50 million dollars.
That's a nice write off as well, while share holders have watched the stock rock bottom flat line for five years.
Lookes like WB's jingoistic excision[1] to suck up to patrons in Dubai flopped.
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