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Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, coming at you from the most upscale frozen daiquiri bar at Caesars Palace. Are you here in Vegas? Come see me at the CinemaCon “Industry Think Tank” program on Wednesday, with AMC’s Adam Aron, Bill Kramer of the Academy, and Disney Studios’ Cathleen Taff.
🎂🎂 I didn’t plan it this way, but the first Monday WIH coincides with the two-year anniversary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Uh…Congrats? Many have suggested this is a good milestone for C.E.O David Zaslav, who’s been freed from the Reverse-Morris Trust handcuffs and can wheel and deal with potential suitors. Yes, but… a transformational deal with Zaz on top now seems unlikely, given the interest rate and regulatory environment.
Plus, WBD isn’t exactly in the financial shape he wanted by now. The share price is down 66 percent from April 8, 2022, with EBITDA well below those lofty initial projections. With debt reduced to “only” about $40 billion and the TV business in free fall, analyst Michael Nathanson warned today that Warner Discovery “may still be forced to explore divesting assets” (he suggests CNN… you listening, Jeff Zucker?), or “it may become the subject of an activist campaign looking to break up the company.” Not great, but that’s probably not happening this week. So if you see Zaslav at his usual table at the Polo Lounge (you will; that’s the whole point of his table), congratulate him—and all of us, really—on making it this far.
Programming note: On The Town, Lucas Shaw and I parsed the low-key winners and losers of Q1, WWE’s Nick Khan walked me through the $5 billion Netflix deal, and documentary legend Sheila Nevins didn’t seem too concerned about true crime and access paydays. Subscribe here and here.
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Discussed in this issue: David Zaslav, Neal Mohan, Don Hankey, Ayo Davis, Adam Aron, Ari Emanuel, Shari Redstone, Egon Durban, Joel Silver, David Ellison, and… Taylor Swift vs. Bob Iger.
But first…
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| Here’s a question that will almost certainly not be asked this week at CinemaCon, the big movie theater pep talk/convention in Las Vegas: Why are there still more than 38,000 movie screens in this country? Seriously, though, per the most recent National Association of Theatre Owners count, it’s 38,000 screens!
After all, this is a simple supply and demand question, right? Domestic box office peaked at $11.9 billion in... |
