Legendary Entertainment is looking for a new home with major competitors as the production company’s deal with Warner Bros. expires.
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Legendary Entertainment may break ties with Warner Bros.
As reported by Deadline, Legendary is looking to move on from Warner Bros. after its deal with the studio recently expired. Warner Bros. does reportedly have a new deal for Legendary, though current front runners for the production company’s new home are Sony and Paramount. Neither Warner Bros. nor Legendary have publicly commented on the matter. Prior to its deal with Warner Bros., Legendary was at Universal Pictures.
If Legendary were to move on from Warner Bros., this would mean a new home for the upcoming sequel Dune: Part 2, which is currently filming in Jordan, and Legendary’s Monsterverse film franchise. While it seems that Warner Bros. Discovery has done away with the HBO Max day-and-date release format for its movies, two of its highest-grossing movies worldwide released using that structure were Legendary titles, including Godzilla Vs. Kong ($470 million) and Dune ($401.8 million). A sequel to 2021’s Godzilla Vs. Kong began filming in Australia in July.
It was announced in July 2021 that Warner Bros. would be sending at least 10 movies to HBO Max in 2022 and that feature films from the studio would drop on the streamer after 45 days exclusively available in theaters. However, recent reports claim that this release window is no longer a guarantee and Warner Bros. will now decide when films will be sent to streaming on a “case-by-case basis.” News of this change comes after Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav, who stepped into the role in April, revealed that the company would be increasing its budget for HBO Max in order to produce new series and content.
The merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery in April has resulted in several changes to the company, including layoffs, the removal of Warner Bros. titles from the streaming service and the cancelation of upcoming HBO Max exclusives like Batgirl. In light of this, Zaslav revealed plans to expand HBO Max’s content library overall, with a focus on increased “content” and overall “quality.”
“Quality is what matters,” Zaslav said. “Quality is what [Chief Content Officer] Casey [Bloys] and that team is delivering. It’s the best team in the business. We’re doubling down on that HBO team. They’re all committed under contract and we’re going to spend dramatically more this year and next year than we spent last year in the year before.” It has been reported that HBO Max’s content purge saved the company “tens of millions of dollars,” and was a result of plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery+.
Source: Deadline