While there was no conversation about the elephant in the room–the pending Paramount Warner Bros Discovery merger-at Warner Bros Motion Picture Co-Chair Michael De Luca‘s Produced By panel this afternoon, the studio boss took time to give props to the zeitgeist going on at the weekend box office, read the YouTube creators Kane Parsons and Curry Barker who are setting fire respectively with A24’s Backrooms and Focus Features’ Obsession.
Why do these guys work at the box office with Parsons delivering A24’s biggest opening ever at the North American B.O. with $85M-$88M and Barker with Focus Features record stateside hit, Obsession clearing $106M this weekend?
“They hone their craft online. Kane worked on Backrooms for five years,” said De Luca, “These filmmakers are in a dialogue with their audience from the word ‘Go’. Their subscribers have direct input in each iteration of these things.”
“By the time you get to the movie, they’ve had a billion test screenings.”
De Luca quipped, “we work with a lot of directors, who the last thing they want to do is sitting in a screening in Oxnard or Dallas or Phoenix, and waiting for that focus group to start tearing the movie to shreds. It’s the polar opposite with these filmmakers, not that they don’t have strong opinions or artistic vision, but they’re making movies for their audience who have been subscribing to their channels for years. That’s been the proving ground. So by the time the movies come out, they’re calibrated to please that audience.”
The studio exec also spoke about the strength of digital and online advertising in movie marketing campaigns, especially when the creators work with you. It was part of De Luca and Pam Abdy’s revamp of the Warner marketing department. “Chase Infiniti got Leonardo DiCaprio to do TikTok!” He also referred to how the creator community embraced Barbie social content when it was rolling out, making a big difference. De Luca gives credits to Tom Cruise for spurring the Barbenheimer effect when he posted on social a photo with tickets to both movies.
In talking about Oppenheimer, De Luca mentioned that Warner’s “popcorn experiment cost the studio Chris Nolan. We could have been at the Oscars with both Oppenheimer and Barbie.”
Emphasizing the importance of filmmaker relationships, who he truly believes are the real IP, not the content itself, “You can’t fumble these balls,” De Luca told the packed theater on the Universal lot where the Produced By Event was taking place.
Warner’s strength is “our label strategy, having something for everyone” said De Luca who gave props to the New Line’s Richard Brener, new genre label Clockwork’s Christian Parkes, DC’s James Gunn and Peter Safran, Warner Bros Picture’s Animation’s Bill Damaschke and the main motion picture group’s production president Jesse Ehrman (who literally interviewed De Luca for a producing gig on A Minecraft Movie some time ago, and passed over him). De Luca gave a shoutout to Ehrman for taking the time to develop the movie right over a decade.
“There’s not crystal ball for box office success in regards to what make you buy a ticket. It’s an active decision when you go to a theater and surrender your devices. There’s no algorithm. No one can predict that decision. You just try to get enough movies on screen in front of people,” said De Luca.
De Luca’s discussion was moderated by the Oscar winning producer of the studio’s latest One Battle After Another, Sara Murphy, who the studio boss mentioned gave Warners their first Best Picture since 2013, as well as MGM’s first Oscar Best Picture nomination with Licorice Pizza in 2022 since 1988’s Rain Man.