Warner's Home Entertainment Division Hit with Massive Lay-Off's

[DetroitSportsFan]

They could always license out their library if they're that strapped for cash. I know several studios would like the opportunity to do business with them.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

They could always license out their library if they're that strapped for cash. I know several studios would like the opportunity to do business with them.

Other studios (BBC, Paramount, etc.) license their libraries to Warner.

[Gold Ranger]

If they really wanted to cut costs, then the Studio Heads should be taking Paycuts and hey should not be paying outrageous prices to Actors each and every movie.

[Nailwraps]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

They could always license out their library if they're that strapped for cash. I know several studios would like the opportunity to do business with them.

It would be a good idea, but from what someone told me, the companies who sublicense their products to another only get a small bonus.

[RudyC]

this is the same problem the music industry is in...

everyone is downloading all the movies in 1080p for free.

streaming new movies cheap on netflix.

and even not going to the theater and instead download a secret cam video of the movie.

[rdodolak]

It's despicable how greedy these studios have gotten. Warner should start by laying off their CEO.

[NLScavenger]

The only person at WB who really needs to be given the boot is the one who's halting the release of Tom and Jerry Golden Collection 2.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

Other studios (BBC, Paramount, etc.) license their libraries to Warner.

Obviously, but I was referring to smaller studios like Shout Factory licensing titles from WB.

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

It would be a good idea, but from what someone told me, the companies who sublicense their products to another only get a small bonus.

It's still better than just sitting on their library and getting nothing.

[Member-222782]

The catering budgets alone for many of their film projects is enough to feed small countries I think the days of name actors getting $20 million paychecks are gone since many of them can barely open movies anymore (almost nobody saw Will Smith in After Earth and Jim Carrey's star is quickly fading and being replaced by Steve Carrell's). There's a LOT of money that can be cut elsewhere. I still believe their film libraries are where they will make their money if they were just willing to sublicense. And there are still plenty of titles in Warner's catalog that can be milked besides Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. Invest in home video, cut catering and salaries instead.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Obviously, but I was referring to smaller studios like Shout Factory licensing titles from WB.

I know what you meant, and outside of a few titles licensed to Criterion, Warner isn't going to seriously consider farming out their stuff.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

I know what you meant, and outside of a few titles licensed to Criterion, Warner isn't going to seriously consider farming out their stuff.

Which is why I brought it up. It makes no sense to leave money sitting on the table.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

The simple fact is physical media is not selling gangbusters like DVD was 10 years ago. I don't think discs are going anywhere for a long, long time but you certainly don't need the staff you had a decade ago in today's market.

It's only going to get more and more niche and focused as time goes on.

The simple fact is these types of layoffs are affecting, virtually, every business sector, and it will only get worse.
I've never been a "sky is falling" kind of person, but many of today's problems can be traced back to one root cause: overpopulation.
Our population is growing so fast, and our technology is developing even faster which is why one person can now do the job 10 used to do a decade ago.
It's just simple numbers. If you have a boat and people keep multiplying in the boat, eventually the boat will sink. The earth is just a much bigger boat, and with 7.2 Billion(and climbing at an exponential rate) passengers, failure of sustainability is inevitable.

Very extreme, but you can apply that to the home video business and see a little bit of parallel. In less than 20 years we've seen: DVD, BD, 3DBD, streaming, just to name a few.
It's not like these technologies evolved over 50 years. They were consolidated into, basically, the last 17 years. That's called an explosion!
As with any explosion there are going to be outward ripples that affect every corner of the home video business...which we are starting to see.
Is it a shame? Of course! Will this be a 1-step back/2-steps forward scenario? I certainly hope so...because much like my overpopulation example the future don't look too bright.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by rickah88

The simple fact is these types of layoffs are affecting, virtually, every business sector, and it will only get worse.
I've never been a "sky is falling" kind of person, but many of today's problems can be traced back to one root cause: overpopulation.
Our population is growing so fast, and our technology is developing even faster which is why one person can now do the job 10 used to do a decade ago.
It's just simple numbers. If you have a boat and people keep multiplying in the boat, eventually the boat will sink. The earth is just a much bigger boat, and with 7.2 Billion(and climbing at an exponential rate) passengers, failure of sustainability is inevitable.

Very extreme, but you can apply that to the home video business and see a little bit of parallel. In less than 20 years we've seen: DVD, BD, 3DBD, streaming, just to name a few.
It's not like these technologies evolved over 50 years. They were consolidated into, basically, the last 17 years. That's called an explosion!
As with any explosion there are going to be outward ripples that affect every corner of the home video business...which we are starting to see.
Is it a shame? Of course! Will this be a 1-step back/2-steps forward scenario? I certainly hope so...because much like my overpopulation example the future don't look too bright.

So, Noah was a documentary?

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

So, Noah was a documentary?

In the beginning....

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by rickah88

In the beginning....

[CinemaScope]

It's not a great industry to be in right now, in fact it's been that way for a few years. Lots of layoffs, & people not getting proper jobs, just short contracts. It's a tough old world out there.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Which is why I brought it up. It makes no sense to leave money sitting on the table.

But the reality is that the amount the studios would see for sublicensed titles is usually so small it wouldn't be enough to save a single job, and sublicensing eats up a lot of time and effort they could spend more productively elsewhere in most cases - especially with shrinking consumer demand and an already shrinking workforce. One of the main rationales WHV had in the past for not sublicensing was that it simply wasn't worth the legal costs of drawing up the contracts in most cases. Certainly the early Criterion laserdisc contracts weren't worth their time in dollars and cents.

[rickah88]

Let's also keep in mind that we, members of this forum(especially frequent deals thread viewers) are a part of the problem!
What's that problem, you say? We all want everything on BD, but we only want to pay pennies for it.
I'm just as "guilty". We can't have it both ways. We can't expect the studios to put every little obscure title out on BD, then sit back and wait for a BF-type deal until we buy it. Someone, somewhere along the line, is footing the bill. No doubt, it's definitely a tough landscape to navigate, and unfortunately it appears that it will only get tougher going forward.
We want the world, but don't want to pay for it(most of the time).

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by rickah88

The simple fact is these types of layoffs are affecting, virtually, every business sector, and it will only get worse.
I've never been a "sky is falling" kind of person, but many of today's problems can be traced back to one root cause: overpopulation.
Our population is growing so fast, and our technology is developing even faster which is why one person can now do the job 10 used to do a decade ago.
It's just simple numbers. If you have a boat and people keep multiplying in the boat, eventually the boat will sink. The earth is just a much bigger boat, and with 7.2 Billion(and climbing at an exponential rate) passengers, failure of sustainability is inevitable.

Very extreme, but you can apply that to the home video business and see a little bit of parallel. In less than 20 years we've seen: DVD, BD, 3DBD, streaming, just to name a few.
It's not like these technologies evolved over 50 years. They were consolidated into, basically, the last 17 years. That's called an explosion!
As with any explosion there are going to be outward ripples that affect every corner of the home video business...which we are starting to see.
Is it a shame? Of course! Will this be a 1-step back/2-steps forward scenario? I certainly hope so...because much like my overpopulation example the future don't look too bright.

Attributing Warner layoffs to overpopulation? That's a new one. With a growing population, all things being equal, shouldn't they require more workers to cater to their customers?

Probably has more to do with technology, both in worker's efficiency and the fact that end users are shifting away from the products many of these people supposedly worked on. With an element of corporate greed tossed in for good measure. But overpopulation? Come on man.

Overpopulation is a concern for energy and foodstocks and healthcare (i.e. if we reach some type of breaking point for natural resources), hardly for something like home video. Also I think you are confusing correlation with causality. Overpopulation is not CAUSING layoffs anywhere.

[DMRI2006]

This is also why people who thought it was great that Fox didn't buyout WB were totally off-target. Warner stock took a huge hit after that, hasn't recovered and now you're seeing the partial result of it with massive layoffs.