Warner Bros’ Streaming Push Rattles A-List Stars and Producers: ‘Box Office Bonuses Mean Sh–‘

As the dust settled from Warner Bros.’ bombshell announcement last week that its movies would debut in theaters and HBO Max simultaneously next year, Hollywood’s creative community began doing the new calculus for the movie business and found itself coming up short. The backend deals and box office profit participation that in the past two decades have yielded millions of dollars for actors, directors and producers of blockbuster hits are likely to go away under a streaming model which favors one-time, up-front payments. As a consequence, the studio is risking the close relationships with star talent it has built up over decades — including filmmakers like Todd Phillips (“Joker”), Chris Nolan (“Tenet”), Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”), Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood and Steven Soderbergh, to name just some of the A-list directors. A second issue is what this portends for the most prominent producers who have deals with the studio, including Legendary, Village Roadshow, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and others. “Basically, if you’re a producer with any meaningful project whatsoever, why would you go to Warner Bros. going forward, because you can’t trust that they’re going to release it appropriately?” one frustrated producer who has worked with the studio...

Read original story Warner Bros’ Streaming Push Rattles A-List Stars and Producers: ‘Box Office Bonuses Mean Sh–‘ At TheWrap