Once again in June 2019, Ji Gi Abrams concluded a huge comprehensive deal that would keep him in the fold of Warner Brosers, his home studio since 2006.
The five -year agreement, which amounted to $ 500 million at the time, had a unique structure that allowed Aprams to benefit from a large group of money to sign another book on comprehensive deals. This led to the multiple bonds behind “Felicity” and “Lost” not only as a content creation, but as a huge pole that will embrace his company to produce Bad Robot, the next generation of storytelling narrators, with the supervision of Abrams and his wife Katie McGrath on the stable. Five and a half years later, Warner Brosers no longer has a lot for its progress for all the currencies that it rained on Abrams, even with the value of the deal to a half of half due to the failure of Bad Robot Company to reach the financial and productive standards that would have raised the full $ 500 million. With less impact than in 2019, the Abrams team quietly concluded a more modest production agreement with the studio, which sources say will cover movies and television. It is a reference to agents and managers throughout the city that the era of huge deals between the writer and the producer consisting of nine numbers has reached its peak. (Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Comment.)
If the plan aims to convert Abrams into a mix between Bob Egger and Rambrant, it did not completely succeed. Bad Robot has spent about $ 50 million of Warners ’money in concluding satellite deals with book and producers such as Angela Robinson, Dustin Thomason, Jessie Nelson and Latoya Morgan, which did not result in much. The goal was to convert the Bad Robot into a small studio with independence within Warners.
“We are amazed by the CEO,” says one of the senior deals. “But this was the time of the peak of the comprehensive deal.”
In 2022, HBO Max stopped the series “Madame X” by Robinson, which was based on the immortal DC character. Last year, the broadcast chose not to go ahead in the movie “Overlook” for Tomason, which is part of the movie “The Shining” by Stephen King. The series “Little Voice”, which is a poem full of music for twenty boredom, produced by Warner Bros. TV and launched it Apple TV+, for one season before it was canceled in 2021. “Duster” was carrying a long journey to the screen. The FBI drama got a direct green light for the series in HBO Max in 2020 and is finally scheduled to appear for the first time Max in 2025. The sources say Morgan got more than $ 10 million for eight episodes.
“The contraction is continuing, and the economy is shedding again on extravagance,” said Stephen Galawi, Dean of Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University. “This is now the economy of meat and potatoes. It has always been a luxurious trade, and now everyone is upset. You are looking at workers’ demobilization operations, some of these major companies disintegrate, and the burden of the debts you endured. We are not in a stagnation, but we are in a stagnation.”
With his new deal, Abrams is no longer at the top of the book and the producers and producers with deals consisting of nine numbers. Customers familiar with the Hollywood hierarchy system says that Dick Wolf is the king, thanks to the huge amount of “Law & Order”, “FBI” and “Chicago” via NBC and CBS. Followed by Ryan Murphy, “Disney,” Disney “,” NETFLIX “,” Bridgerton “), Dan Fujlyman (Disney,” Only Murders in the Building “), Paramount,” Yellowstone “) and Greg. “The Flash”). Perlante has only two years left for his $ 120 million agreement, and he is likely to face an unfair atmosphere when it is time to negotiate. Some, such as the king of comedy Chuck Lore, have more complex deals that may surpass large income deals due to the terms of the back compensation of the offers that achieve well.
If the size is the key to the writer and the producer, the Abrams who was prolific in the past had reached a goal in the wrong time. On the TV level, the HBO Max network canceled the series “Constantine”, produced by Bad Robot, based on DC ownership. On the big screen, a lot of noise was surrounded by Black Superman, produced by Abrams and Silrario Ta-Nessi Cots. This project is still technically alive but has not seen any progress forward since early 2023. Instead, Warner Bros.-DC has restarted the movie “Superman” directed by James Gan, which will reach theaters on July 11. The next movie “Flowervale Street”, which takes place in the 1980s. “Anne Hathaway starring. Although the excitement film cost $ 85 million, which will be shown on March 13, may include dinosaurs, it is not the type that was going on in the mind of Warnermedia in 2019.
Even if the Abrams production is better, it will remain at the mercy of the market. The Corona virus and dual labor strikes in 2023 caused chaos in the industry, causing the closure or stopping of production and destroying the end result of the old studios. More than a year after SAG-Aftra reached an agreement with studios, production is no longer normal. This led to the sending of the CEOs, including David Zasslav from Warner Bros. Discovery to search for cartilage to reduce it.
“The focus on reducing studios means another look at these generous talent deals,” says Jason Skoire, an honorary professor at the Faculty of Film Arts at the University of Southern California and the host of The Movie Business Podcast. “Warner Bros. Discovery – and other studios also – is also subjected to great pressure from shareholders and the board of directors to reduce its debts, and talent (costs) is one of the ways to do so.”
But if there is one unambiguous sign that the dawn of a new day has emerged, it is that the HBO network stopped the Demimonde series, which cost more than $ 200 million in 2022 due to budget concerns. The science fiction drama produced by Warner Bros. was marketed. On direct broadcast screens. There was no detainee.
“The Bad Robot deal was a tremendous coronation of JJ. It was mainly a worker screenwriter who helped Hollywood (convert it) to Stephen Spielberg. But the question is: What did Warner Bros have benefited from this deal?