I am writing to everyone today to provide an update on where we are with our negotiations with Warner Bros. As I made clear to the Motion Picture Group last week and I will now reiterate this: WME rejects a unilateral decision out of their hands.
When Warner Bros. called to let us know that they were going to announce their decision to release the movies together in theaters and on HBO Max last Thursday, we immediately told them that we were disappointed with the decision Collected for the group. A call. Since then, we have been engaged in a follow-up discussion with the highest level at Warner Bros. and we are arranging a meeting today to work towards reaching a compromise that protects the creative and economic interests of our customers.
We’ve already worked on “The Little Things” – the first film on Warner Bros. scheduled to be released and featuring WME clients. We have the most business with Warner Bros. from any agency and we are working aggressively to ensure our customers are safe.
As I said last week and I will repeat here:
- Warner Bros. Announced a full slate strategy of 2021 movies without consulting with their partners (our customers), not only ignoring our customers’ feelings about the strategy but in many cases violating the agreement.
- This is a clear attempt to self-deal and use our customers’ work to create their HBO Max streaming service, in which our customers have no financial interest.
- The simultaneous release on HBO Max will calibrate the home office x office fees and torpedo the traditional cascade of economics that makes near and long-term movies profitable for studios and our clients (our client Chris Nolan has made this point very clear this week: ” , I think all the studios know that the movie theater experience will come back and that ecosystem will be a very important part of the long term. It’s really unfortunate. It’s not a way of doing business and it’s not the best thing for the health of our industry.))
- In the current environment with Covid, most of the releases being delayed by the studio, or involving the consent and processing of the client, sell the movies on a streaming platform. But what Warner Bros. has decided to do is move forward with the theatrical release in the darker days of COVID. At a time when our own government leaders are telling us to stay home and away from loved ones, Warner Bros. is doubling down on office fees to make sure the office fees fail and worse, endangering movie-goers who want to see the movie in theaters. Lays. .
- This decision is even more astonishing and knowing that the vaccine is here, finally putting an end to the surprisingly challenging storm we have all been living in for the last nine months.
- Moreover, we do not see this decision as a lifeline for exhibitors or a way to support an existing business. , Latanu, we see it as a completely opportunistic attempt to rewrite the rules of winding in favor of Warnermedia, while the theater owners themselves have brought it to their knees because of Covid.
- Given that each movie is unique in how it is financially kept together for our actors, and given that each movie has unique characteristics from artist to artist within, we will not accept a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
- Finally, we take seriously the idea that moving our customers’ work to the HBO Max platform is effectively free advertising for the HBO Max and we expect and will negotiate that consideration for our customers.
Again, these are all issues that we did last week and have strengthened since then. Going forward, we will be busy on the movie with Warner Bros. based on the film, and we will not stop until the creative and financial needs of our customers are satisfied.
Naturally, there is a lot of press attention around – especially with the public statements of other agencies and leading artists – but it is our responsibility to keep our clients secretly working on our negotiations to protect the privacy of our clients. And interests.
We will keep you informed as our negotiations progress. Please feel free to share this letter or use the content as a matter of conversation with your client.
Thank you
Patrick
