Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been ruffling a few feathers. Hollywood was overwhelmingly leaning in one direction, with a few exceptions, for the recent US election. Zaslav came out on a third-quarter earnings call yesterday and made positive noises about the incoming Trump presidency.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, he referred to it as an “opportunity for consolidation” and said it could “provide a real, positive and accelerated impact on this industry that’s needed”. This, of course, did not go down well with most of Hollywood, and around 50% of casual observers, such is the febrile nature of things right now.
Zaslav went on to say:
“…there needs to be some consolidation in order to have these businesses be stronger and have a better consumer experience.”
So is he leaning towards deregulation and weakening of the current rules around mergers and acquisitions?
It was not all good news for Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio’s Q3 results fell 17% to $2.68 billion. Theatrical revenues were down 40% from last year due to the lack of a Barbie on this year’s schedule for them.
Of course, this year Joker: Folie a Deux has become a notorious flop. On this, Zaslav said simply:
“Inconsistency also remains an issue at our motion picture studio, as reinforced recently by the disappointing results of Joker 2.”
Now, not defending Joker 2, but you know what causes corporate inconsistency Dave? Lack of a coherent strategy and no commitment to a plan to deliver it, or a plan that changes every ten minutes. My consultancy fees are much more reasonable than the big five and I can be contacted via the website.