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An Open Letter to Warner Bros CEO About Layoffs and Donuts-

130 pointsby _qik1almost 9 years ago

12 comments

alexandercrohdealmost 9 years ago
The thing that I think makes this letter great, and the reason I upvoted it on a tech site, that I haven&#x27;t seen anybody else mention yet is this: it&#x27;s a universal point.<p>Movies aside, I think his point applies to a lot of other industries, &quot;If I worked at a donut stand, and I kept fucking up donuts, I&#x27;d be fired. Even if I made a tiny decent one every now and then, it doesn&#x27;t matter. I&#x27;m gonna get fired.&quot; I have found this myself in tech, that often those held as icons of genius are often held to lower standards and have the potential to do much more damage than those at the bottom.<p>For example, a startup may have an awful product yet the pressure always trickles down to engineers to make it 10% faster or get in trouble. Yet so often it seems not to be that 10% delivery rate that separates a unicorn from a failure. It&#x27;s a truly novel idea, a great design, and architects who can implement that vision in a stable and smooth way.
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thewopralmost 9 years ago
I am not an insider but wow, this really resonated with me.<p>&gt; We pursued a potentially great summer movie like Edge of Tomorrow and completely botched its release.<p>Edge of Tomorrow was a pretty solid movie. I would absolutely have gone to it in the theater, but the marketing just did not connect with me. I&#x27;ve run into this with a number of movies now.
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privateersmanalmost 9 years ago
I think this is a symptom that the movie industry is on its way out, in much the same way as has happened to music.<p>They were flush with cash during the early 2000s thanks to TV and DVD. It was like a golden age with lots of studios producing unusual material.<p>The problem is the internet has damaged their tiered selling technique, yet their projects are still as expensive and risky.
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jfoutzalmost 9 years ago
To throw things in a greek setting, Marvel is traditionally comedy and DC is tragedy. Iron Man is a drunken, womanizing asshole. Robert Downey Jr was is brilliant because he&#x27;s still likeable. Sure, he&#x27;s rich, but his life is a mess. You can look down on him. He&#x27;s a fun guy, you want him to make it, but he&#x27;s still kind of a scumbag. Christopher Nolan&#x27;s Batman is the opposite. Sure, he&#x27;s rich, but he&#x27;s facing some big demons. There&#x27;s a note of sadness, because in spite of his advantages, he faces some terrible challenges. You feel for the guy, because he suffers so much. Marvel is relatable, at least i&#x27;m handling my life better than that guy. DC is aspirational, i wish i was strong enough to handle what they handle. This is a sweeping generalization, but i think it&#x27;s generally true.<p>I&#x27;ve seen most of the movies the author called out, and i enjoyed them. I can&#x27;t say i enjoyed them enough to see in a theater, but they&#x27;re fun. I think of them as Saturday afternoon matinee movies. I like movies. I don&#x27;t mind flaws, but those popcorn movies are something i&#x27;ll wait to watch on a Tuesday night with a couple of beers.<p>I think warner&#x27;s big problem is they&#x27;re spending 100+ million dollars to produce something that&#x27;s in the 20-60 million range. I&#x27;ll watch them, independent of production value, because i like movies. But i&#x27;m going to get the $2.99 SD itunes version, i&#x27;m not going to spend the 12 bucks to see that in the theater. (i did see suicide squad opening night, but the ticket was free)<p>I hope they figure it out. WB made some great stuff, and some fun stuff. They&#x27;re just not quite calibrated right. If you&#x27;re going to blow 100M+ on a movie, you really need the details right. Calling back to Suicide squad, it was fun. I really enjoyed it, and i&#x27;d be happy to pay 3-5 dollars on a weeknight to watch it. If i had to pay $12 for the ticket, and another $10 for the popcorn and soda (how can you not get popcorn and soda?!? it completes the experience!) I&#x27;d be annoyed.
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eggyalmost 9 years ago
Great letter especially mixing in love of the material, and company vs. poor leadership and execution. It&#x27;s a shame, since this is an amazing time for comics&#x2F;fantasy fans around the world. So many old properties being mashed up, brought to the screen, and a younger generation eager to watch them.<p>I wonder if it has stolen a large part of the Western anime market?<p>Edge of Tomorrow was a sneaky surprise. I&#x27;ve seen it several times, and my children loved it. A lot of fun for such a simple premise. I wasn&#x27;t aware it didn&#x27;t do well fiscally, since everyone I know loved it. I guess it might be doing better on DVD&#x2F;digital release?<p>I grew up in the late 60s early 70s, and it was always DC vs. Marvel. As much as I appreciated Batman and Superman back then, even though Batman wasn&#x27;t a thing for me until Frank Miller in 1986, I was a Marvel fan. Spiderman, because he was a local boy, the underdog, and kids in my neighborhood could relate.<p>I guess I will wait for Suicide Squad on DVD&#x2F;digital, and not waste the theater ticket.<p>[Edit] Pretty strong objections from Director of Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins, basically saying the letter misinformation - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;PattyJenks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;PattyJenks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw</a>
kibaalmost 9 years ago
I wonder why story quality in movies such a toss-up?<p>They got screenwriters, producers, and editors, right?<p>You think movie studios should had managed to figure out &#x27;consistent quality&#x27; by now.
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nativealmost 9 years ago
Hollywood. What does that even mean anymore ? They&#x27;ve run out of good ideas along that ago and with all the writing talent in the world to boot. And its&#x27;s not by accident. You&#x27;ve got MBA execs with not a atom in their soul about art or creativity calling the shots.
neveroffensivealmost 9 years ago
Am I the only one who kind of liked Suicide Squad? I mean the sound track was great...
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mouzogualmost 9 years ago
Is there some reason that Zack Snyder is allowed to keep directing and producing these mediocre films?<p>It&#x27;s clear that storytelling is not his strength. So what is it exactly that&#x27;s keeping him in the directors chair?
basicplus2almost 9 years ago
This resonates with me too.. similar to screw over workers who get the job done and steal all the I&#x27;ll gotten gains with a personal payrise..
Grue3almost 9 years ago
Didn&#x27;t Suicide Squad break the box office record? This whole post reads like sour grapes.
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ekianjoalmost 9 years ago
A decent article, but the end weakens it bad:<p>&gt; I love that studio, and you&#x27;re allowing it to sink. It&#x27;s not about making movies for &#x27;the fans&#x27; and not &#x27;the critics.&#x27; It&#x27;s not even about &#x27;ruining childhoods.&#x27; It&#x27;s about protecting livelihoods.<p>Companies do not exist to make their employees happy and employed forever. The fact that they do is because it goes with their interest for a given amount of time, but that does not mean it always do. Pretending it&#x27;s the company goal to &quot;protect livelihoods&quot; is just wrong. Companies are not welfare agents.
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