WARNER BROS BOSS: Top Priority Is DC Comics, Harry Potter and Game Of Thrones Franchises!

Warner Brothers Discovery executive, Gerhard Zeiler has announced in the keynote address in a media conference in UK, the company will be focused on the development of franchises including DC Comics, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones as the key priority for the merged Warner Bros. Discovery.

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Warner Bros. Discovery International Boss Gerhard Zeiler Talks Up “Development” Of ‘Game Of Thrones’, DC Franchises As Major Priority – RTS London
https://deadline.com/2022/09/warner-bros-discovery-gerhard-zeiler-rts-london-1235127617/

Warner Bros. Discovery Int’l President on His Commitment to Local Content and Saying “100 Percent Yes” to Theatrical Business
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/warner-bros-discovery-international-content-movies-1235225485/

“The theatrical business is here to stay,” Warner Bros. Discovery is saying “100 percent yes” to theatrical windows, and local content is an important complement to global hits, the conglomerate’s president, international Gerhard Zeiler told a Royal Television Society (RTS) gathering in London on Tuesday.

Zeiler spoke during an appearance at the RTS London Convention 2022 in a conversation with ITN journalist Nina Hossain, discussing the vision for the new media and entertainment giant and its plans to harness its brands to engage audiences that the industry giant.

“The vision is actually quite easy. We are a content company,” Zeiler said when asked about the vision of the merged Warner Bros. Discovery. “We tell stories” in many, many ways, including in feature films, TV series, animation, sports, news, documentaries and games. He touted the “breadth” of how the firm tells stories, while highlighting “the development and quality” of content, from DC and HBO franchises, including Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, as a key mandate for the company’s management team. “That’s not possible in a creative industry,” he said though when asked if hit films can be predicted with certainty.

Discussing the company’s distribution strategy, he said it is similarly broad-based, highlighting the conglomerate was saying “100 percent yes to the theatrical business” and exclusive cinema windows. “Everyone who believed cinema is dead has been proven wrong and will be (shown to be) wrong in the future,” Zeiler argued. “The theatrical business is here to stay, although, of course, the pandemic changed things.” For example, “not everyone is still feeling safe to go back to the cinema” after the COVID pandemic, and some may need a big film to make them go to a cinema, but movies continue to attract audiences and are a “must-have,” he said.

Overall, “we don’t believe that it makes sense to put all the content we have into one window,” Zeiler highlighted, arguing that was not what consumers wants.

Touting the high current level of quality of content across the company and industry, he said it was “key” to “bring the best creators in.” In this context, he recounted how HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys bet on Euphoria when the idea was pitched to him.

Asked about the importance of local content for the company, he said “to really be a top 3 player, you need to complement” the big global hits, such as House of the Dragon, Succession and Elvis, with “local relevant stories, maybe not in every single market of the world, but in a lot.” He cited Spanish originals as examples, including horror series 30 Coins. The same goes for local films, such as Warner’s Japanese and German movies, Zeiler said.

His comments follow much industry debate over changes at the company unveiled over the summer. With the merged conglomerate targeting profitable streaming subscriber growth and $3 billion in cost savings, the company said in July that it was adjusting its programming strategy for streaming service HBO Max in parts of Europe. It will no longer produce originals for HBO Max in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Central Europe and Turkey, the company said back then. It detailed that it would be “ceasing our original programming efforts for HBO Max in the Nordics and Central Europe” and had already ended “our nascent development activities in the newer territories of Netherlands and Turkey, which had commenced over the past year.” It added that the streamer would remove “a limited amount of original programming” to allow it to free up licensing deals. The firm’s original programming efforts in Spain and France are not affected by the strategy change.