- According to several reports, Warner Bros. to transactions for new payments to filmmakers and their crew, based in part on HBO Max cash.
- The deals would increase the chance of performance-based box office sales bonuses, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.
- According to The Hollywood Reporter, Legendary Entertainment’s “Godzilla vs. Kong” is at the heart of current negotiations.
- “I strongly believe that the future of cinema will be on the big screen, no matter what any Wall Street dilettante says,” Denis Villeneuve, director of “Dune” wrote on Variety in December.
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According to several reports, Warner Bros. in to new payment structures for filmmakers and their crew, based in part on HBO Max streaming fees.
The studio surprised Hollywood in December by announcing that the entire 2021 series will be released on its HBO Max streaming service. The films, including ‘The Matrix 4’, ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ and ‘Dune’, will hit theaters on the same days as their debut.
Now Warner Bros. changing transactions with partners to ‘guarantee payment regardless of office sales and to increase the chance of performance-based bonuses,’ Bloomberg reported on Saturday.
Read more: HBO CEO Max Breaks Hollywood’s Shocking Decision to Release All 2021 Warner Bros. Movies to Streaming and Theaters Simultaneously: ‘Predictability is Extremely Important’
These bonuses have traditionally been linked to the success of the box office. There are several movies on Warner Bros. ‘s release list in 2021 which would be considered tent poles if they were traditionally released in theaters.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Legendary Entertainment’s “Godzilla vs. Kong” is at the heart of the negotiations.
Forbes reports that the film has a sample budget of about $ 180 million, while The Hollywood Reporter said it was closer to $ 200 million. It will be expected to earn more than that if released exclusively in theaters. It’s a sequel to ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ and ‘Kong: Skull Island’, which grossed $ 387 million and $ 567 million in theaters worldwide, respectively, according to Box Office Mojo.
Legendary attempted to ‘Godzilla vs. Kong ‘for $ 225 million to Netflix, but Warner Bros. terminated the deal, according to Forbes. Now it looks like Warner Bros. and Legendary can make a deal.
Under the agreement, HBO Max Warner Bros. would a fee paid for the streaming films, some of which would go to the production partners, filmmakers, cast and crew members of the films, according to Bloomberg.
The deal would also halve the amount of box office sales a movie would have to fetch before partners began earning bonuses, according to Bloomberg.
It is unclear from the reports whether all filmmakers and production companies involved in Warner Bros. 2021 releases, until the new agreement is agreed.
“Dune” director Denis Villeneuve, for example, wrote a screaming essay in Variety after the HBO Max announcement. He said the decision by AT&T, the operating parent of Warner Bros., was a ‘sacrifice’.
“I strongly believe that the future of cinema will be on the big screen, no matter what any Wall Street dilettante says,” Villeneuve wrote.
HBO Max released ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ on Christmas Day, the same day it arrived in theaters. The film grossed more than $ 16 million in its first weekend, the best opening during the pandemic.
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, parent company of Business Insider, is a board member of Netflix.