David Zaslav has been manoeuvering his scythe-wielding arm upon Warner Bros. Discovery and everything that falls under its umbrella. Since his arrival and taking over the merged company from WarnerMedia and Discovery, the CEO has wrought massive shifts within the management, followed by cancellations and resignations. And now, reports indicate all of that might have been for a reason.
What’s at the Center of David Zaslav’s Spiderweb of Change?
The CEO and President of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, had spent a long time supervising and overseeing the distribution of television content, bringing in cable and satellite carriage to networks like NBC as President of Cable and Domestic TV and New Media Distribution in the 90s. He has successfully determined the future of entire companies in terms of their long-term plans.
However, when it comes to WB Discovery, the myopic lens through which the world is witnessing the changes — slow, one at a time, and gradual — none of it seems to be contributing to much of a futuristic vision. Perhaps, the brushstrokes of shelving films and shipping out of projects individually don’t make sense, but with time, and once Zaslav is done with his work, the final result will amount to something substantial, both for qualitative purposes as well as for the rise of WB from its current rubble.
David Zaslav’s WB Bleeding a Slow Financial Death
The company, after months of severe strategic shifts at a tectonic level, has finally admitted to not having enough financial capital to be able to release any more than two movies for the rest of 2022, i.e. Black Adam and Don’t Worry Darling. This means that Shazam! Fury of the Gods which was slated for December 16, 2022, is now being shifted farther back to March 17, 2023, and consequently, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is now being moved to December 25, 2023.
As expected, the Twitter mob is in a frenzy about the current state of the production company.
Warner Bros Discovery only has enough money to release two movies the rest of the year
• #BlackAdam
• #DontWorryDarling(via @Borys_Kit) pic.twitter.com/FkvmNRM1Jr
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) August 24, 2022
they broke 💀
— rust. (@rustmdg1) August 24, 2022
Warner bros: pic.twitter.com/K7rUSYKOgh
— Slickzino (@slickzino) August 24, 2022
They were before they decided to scrap 100s of millions of dollars worth of projects and gut their own service. Ended up losing Billions
— Kevin Woods (@TheREALMetricK) August 24, 2022
let it be known that it was Zaslav who finally killed off Warner Bros.
— Tommy🪤 (@ChildishTommy) August 24, 2022
James Cameron effect. Lmaooo
— ChaMpiON (@champion029) August 24, 2022
CEO walking into his office the next day be like pic.twitter.com/vaqhbCs4II
— TheNASCARKing (@nascar_king) August 24, 2022
Of course, the announcement comes days after the recent shipping out of dozens of series and projects from HBO Max comes to light. After the worst of it could happen, which at the time included the cancellation of Batgirl, now David Zaslav is handling the moving of several Max projects from the streaming service to be shipped out to separate platforms. And amid all the distress, a handful of people get to enjoy the “funeral screening” of Batgirl before it is completely wiped out from the history of cinema.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
