Project Popcorn, Crypto Everything, and the Iger Aftermath
Happy Monday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to the greatest and most notable new journalism being produced at Puck. Today, we direct your attention to Matt Belloni's provocative conversation with Jason Kilar, the WarnerMedia C.E.O. whose controversial decision to eliminate exclusive theater releases last year turned HBO Max into a streaming powerhouse—and made him innumerable enemies in Hollywood. (If you're not already signed up for Matt's private email, What I'm Hearing..., you can remedy that by adding it to your inbox right here.)
Plus, below the fold: William D. Cohan takes a closer look at Wall Street's post post-Covid deal frenzy, the long shadow of Bob Iger, Katie Haun's new crypto funds, Jane Fraser's pandemic crackdown, and the bond market paroxysm sending shock waves across financial markets.
We talked about the legacy of Project Popcorn, the future of non-franchise films, Discovery spinoff details, CNN+, The CW, The Batman and more. You probably noticed WarnerMedia C.E.O. Jason Kilar doing a bit of a victory lap this week. AT&T revealed on Wednesday that HBO and HBO Max hit 73.8 million subscribers worldwide in 2021, beating the company’s 70-73 million target. AT&T didn’t detail the linear vs. digital split, or the U.S. vs. overseas breakdown, so it’s not totally possible to gauge the impact of “Project Popcorn,” Kilar’s controversial experiment of dropping Warners’ 2021 movies on HBO Max in the U.S. on the same the day that they were appeared in theaters. And who knows how many Max subs will churn when consumers realize that they aren’t getting exclusives, like Matrix and Dune, in 2022? Still, in a year HBO Max has gone from streaming also-ran to serious player.
Jason offered to chat with me about the numbers, but he made the media rounds, so I figured I’d wait until after his other interviews posted to hopefully ask what wasn’t asked. We talked later in the week about the legacy of Project Popcorn, an update on WarnerMedia’s spinoff to Discovery, the CW sale, whether he’ll push The Batman due to Covid, and what he might do next after the spinoff closes (spoiler: he wouldn’t tell me). I trimmed and edited this for space and clarity.
Matt Belloni: I was among the critics of Project Popcorn, and I still have questions about it. But it’s clear that you did what you set out to do you: Raise HBO Max subs, beat the number, survive the pandemic. Are you doing a victory lap now?
Jason Kilar: It’s trying to provide context for the numbers. We took understandable heat from a number of people. But it’s hard to argue; we made the right decision. We served the customers, the fans. We partnered with theaters; we were the only ones to provide 18 theatrical features with full marketing spends and full global theatrical releases. And we worked with our [talent] participants to make sure they were taken care of.
But let’s look at the tradeoff. Hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to participants; Warner Bros. had zero movies in the top 10 at the domestic box office; angry talent...
FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT 
'Yellowstone' could have been one of the greatest success stories of the streaming age for Viacom. Here’s what actually happened. MATTHEW BELLONI 
What I witnessed that day wasn't a surprise, after years of reporting on the far-right. It’s everything that came next that shocked me. TINA NGUYEN 
The Puck team discusses how Viacom lost 'Yellowstone', the Smith & Smith Newco, Trump's media nightmare, and more '22 predictions. HAMBY, BELLONI, BYERS, AND NGUYEN 
Notes on the vaccination crackdown in banking, Zoom M&A, the legacy of Bob Iger, and Silicon Valley's new digital gold rush. WILLIAM D. COHAN 
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