Warner Bros: Last News

Warner Bros/New Line/DC’s sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods hit early tracking Thursday and surprised many with a low projection of $35 million, which is under the first installment’s $53.5M opening in 2019.

Warner Bros. Games Hogwarts Legacy, the open-world, action role-playing game has sold more than 12 million units and hit $850 million in sales globally and 280 million hours played in its first two weeks of launch, the company said, confirming a major hit as parent Warner Bros. Discovery prepares to release quarterly earnings shortly.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Hogwarts Legacy” has wingardium leviosa-ed Warner Bros. Games’ sales, earning $850 million in global sales and moving more than 12 million units in just its first two weeks post-launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. That marks the biggest global launch ever for the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned video game company, with the “Harry Potter” action role-playing game also setting the Twitch record for single-player games with 1.28 million peak concurrent viewers at launch. As Variety previously reported, “Hogwarts Legacy” opened with stunning player engagement, topping 267 million hours played from launch on Feb. 10 through Feb. 21. On Thursday, Warner Bros. Games revealed the game had broken company records with 280 million hours played to date.

HBO Max is expanding the world of Stephen King‘s IT with the drama series Welcome To Derry (wt) from Warner Bros. Television and developed for TV by filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti (IT, IT Chapter Two) and Jason Fuchs (IT Chapter Two, Wonder Woman).

UPDATED with TCM statement. Warner Bros Discovery’s TCM is officially discontinuing its Underground sub-brand, two months after laying off programmer Millie De Chirico.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter HBO Max is officially moving forward with the “It” prequel series currently titled “Welcome to Derry,” Variety has learned. The show was first reported as being in development in March 2022, while Variety exclusively reported that the project had attached its co-showrunners in November. As previously reported, the series was developed for television by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs. “As teenagers, we took turns reading chapters of Stephen King’s ‘It’ until the thick paperback fell to pieces,” said the Muschiettis. “‘It’ is an epic story that contains multitudes, far beyond what we could explore in our ‘It’ movies. We can’t wait to share the depths of Steve’s novel, in all its heart, humor, humanity and horror.”

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Filmmakers Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are set for a big honor at this year’s CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie theater owners.  Nolan and Thomas will receive the NATO Spirit of the Industry award, presented by the National Association of Theatre Owners, on April 27 at Las Vegas’ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. “I am deeply honored to present the Spirit of the Industry Award to our good friends Chris and Emma as my last official act as President of NATO,” noted NATO President and CEO John Fithian. “No one has done more to advance the theatrical experience than these two champions of cinema.”

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor As the fourth-quarter earnings cycle for Big Media closes today with Warner Bros. Discovery results after the market close, Wall Street will be eagerly looking for green shoots to confirm that the worst is truly over for the newly minted conglomerate. Warner Bros. Discovery shares have been gaining slowly but steadily since the beginning of this year as Team Zaslav hammers the point to investors that the worst of its integration and restructuring pain is behind them. WBD CEO David Zaslav has been ahead of the curve in preaching a return to the business fundamentals that have powered Hollywood for more than a half-century. Disney and Paramount Global delivered results earlier this month that came with sober warnings about streaming losses hitting a peak this year. Zaslav and WBD chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels have promised analysts that the heaviest gusher of investment in HBO Max came in 2022 and that they are now on the path to taking the streamer to the promised land — profitablity — next year.

If you think you’re having a rough week, at least there’s not a thousand pound moose giving you a hoof to the head!

BBC Studios is gearing up for next week’s Showcase event by signing a global first-look deal with former Warner Bros. Australia TV boss Shaun Murphy.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “The Flash” is set to blaze through CinemaCon 2023, where Warner Bros. Pictures will screen the superhero blockbuster at the annual convention of movie theater owners in April, multiple sources told Variety. Showing the film in this capacity is yet another sign of Warner Bros.’ passionate support of the project, one that has been saddled with controversy due to trouble surrounding star Ezra Miller. It’ll be the first full screening of “The Flash,” which opens in theaters on June 16. CinemaCon is taking place in Las Vegas from April 24 through April 27. Major studios typically bring sizzle reels, first-look trailers and trot out celebrities at the yearly gathering, which is designed to get exhibitors pumped about the movies they’ll put on their screens in the coming year.

DC’s long-anticipated superhero pic The Flash will be getting its first-ever public screening at the 2023 edition of CinemaCon, Deadline hears. The debut screening is set to take place on April 25, ahead of Warner Bros’ official slate presentation at the Las Vegas confab, showcasing the most promising, upcoming big-screen titles for theater owners.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Warner Bros’ “The Batman” leads the film nominees for the third annual Critics Choice Super Awards, honoring superhero, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and action movies and series in entertainment. Matt Reeves’ superhero film earned six nominations including best superhero movie, three individual best actor in a superhero movie mentions for Robert Pattinson, Colin Farrell and Paul Dano, with the latter also picking up a second nom for best villain in a movie. Zoë Kravitz also landed a nom for actress in a superhero movie for her portrayal of Catwoman. Other favorites of the Critics Choice Association included many of this year’s Oscar nominees such as “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer After struggling to re-create the magic of the “Harry Potter” film franchise with the lackluster spinoff trilogy “Fantastic Beasts,” Warner Bros. has finally struck galleons anew with its latest piece of Wizarding World IP: video game “Hogwarts Legacy.” The action role-playing game, produced by Warner Bros. Games and Avalanche Software, has clicked with Potterheads since its Feb. 10 release. Sales figures are yet to come, but it’s clear from the buzz factor and other measures — including sales charts in Japan, the U.K. and Europe — that fans are engaged. For one, the arrival of the game spurred the highest traffic in the “Harry Potter” community on fan platform Fandom in more than seven years.

Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman leads all nominations for the third annual Critics Choice Super Awards, which revealed nominees Wednesday for the year’s best across the superhero, sci-fi/fantasy, horror and action genres in film and on TV.

Hogwarts Legacy has confirmed there are “no current plans” for future expansions.Released earlier this month for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, Hogwarts Legacy is an immersive, open-world, action role-playing game set in the 1800s. A Playstation 4 and Xbox One version will follow on April 4, while Nintendo Switch players have to wait until July 25.However, according to game director Alan Tew, developer Avalanche Software doesn’t have any plans to expand the Harry Potter world.“We’ve been really heads down bringing [Hogwarts Legacy] to life, so at the moment there are no current plans for DLC,” Tew told IGN.In a three-star review, NME wrote: “Hogwarts Legacy is fun and manages to get a lot of things right, but it already feels somewhat dated, no doubt a hangover from the six-year development cycle.

EXCLUSIVE: UK film and television studios are preparing for inspections as they attempt to ward off property tax bills that could threaten the survival of some filming facilities.

The 34th annual Producers Guild Awards got underway Tuesday with HBO Max’s Sesame Street winning the children’s program award and HBO’s documentary Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off winning for sports program in categories announced during the PGA’s East Coast nominee celebration in New York.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Just days after Warner Bros. announced the cancellation of “Judge Mathis” after 24 seasons, Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group has scooped up the services of Judge Greg Mathis to host a new first-run one-hour strip for fall 2023. “Mathis Court with Judge Mathis” has been given a “firm go” by Allen Media Group, which is now pitching the show for broadcast, cable and distribution platforms.In addition to broadcast syndication, the show will join Allen Media Group’s eight court series are carried on its television network Justice Central, available in more than 50 million U.S. homes. Allen Media Group’s “America’s Court with Judge Ross” (which premiered in fall 2010), as well as “Justice for All with Judge Cristina Perez,” “Justice with Judge Mablean,” “Supreme Justice with Judge Karen,” “The Verdict with Judge Hatchett,” “We the People with Judge Lauren Lake” and “Equal Justice with Judge Eboni K. Williams.” (“Equal Justice” also premieres in fall 2023.) “Judge Greg Mathis is an outstanding, charismatic, and iconic television host, and we are extremely confident that our eighth and newest court series with Judge Mathis will be very successful for years to come as he joins our outstanding roster of talent, including Judge Kevin Ross, Judge Mablean Ephriam, Judge Christina Perez, Judge Karen Mills-Francis, Judge Glenda Hatchett, Judge Lauren Lake, and Judge Eboni K. Williams,” said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group, which produces and distributes globally.

Deadline has launched the streaming site for its Contenders Film: The Nominees awards-season event, which took place on Saturday and highlighted the cast and creatives behind 12 films that have been Oscar-nominated this year.

Days after it was revealed that Judge Mathis would end its long run in daytime syndication, Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group has announced that it will launch Mathis Court with Judge Mathis in the fall.