HBO Maxes Out; Is AMC Hiding Zombie Treasure?; Why 007 Died

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ZASLAV SAYS HBO BUSINESSES LOST $3 BILLION LAST YEAR: "WE HAVE AN AWFUL LOT TO DO"

Welcome to Deadline's daily newsletter, Morning Rush

Maxed Out - Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav revealed that the all-in streaming strategy under Warners' previous leadership piled up a staggering $3 billion in losses last year. He said the HBO business unit spent about $7 billion on content. “Our whole library went on HBO Max. We weren’t selling any of it. But it was all on there. We looked, and we said, 'Most of that is not being watched,' or 'We don’t think anyone is subscribing because of this.' " But there is a bright side, said Zaslav. "For me, I don’t want to buy a company that is really well run. It’s hard to make it better." >>> "Much More Challenging Than We Thought"

Deadline Exclusives & Originals

'The Walking Dead' (AMC)

Are AMC's Zombies Hiding $200M?- AMC's franchise-originating The Walking Dead will come to an end with Sunday's Season 11 finale, but its lawsuits will shamble on. Producers Robert Kirkman, Gale Ann Hurd, David Alpert, Charles Eglee and former showrunner Glenn Mazarra have filed a new, $200 million breach of contract action. That's in addition to their previous suit, which is set to go to trial in February. >>> "Two-Faced Treatment"

Once Upon Another Time In Hollywood (Column) - Brad Pitt's underplayed, funny and ultimately poignant performance in director Damian Chazelle's Babylon, which just screened at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre may put him back in the Oscar race after his 2020 win for another film set in Hollywood's decadent past. >>>Academy Members' Reactions

Streets Of Philadelphia (Exclusive) - 76ers legend Allen Iverson is helping shepherd the gun violence doc Bad Things Happen in Philadelphia alongside up-and-coming filmmaker Kyra Knox and Grammy-nominated producer Mark Mims. >>>1,453 Shootings So Far This Year

QUOTABLE: “Hiring over the holidays is no good, you’re just giving them vacation anyway”
- Endeavor Group Holdings President Mark Shapiro explaining one rationale for the company's just-announced hiring freeze

THE DEADLINE Q&A:

Sam Mendes On James Bond’s Death & How His Mother's Mental Illness Informs ‘Empire Of Light’

Skyfall maestro Sam Mendes tells Deadline's Mike Fleming about the key decision in that film that set off a chain of events leading toward 007's subsequent death. Mendes also talks about his latest, the Oscar-buzzy paen to cinema Empire of Light, which also plumbs one charcter's struggle with mental illness. >>>"The Central Experience Of My Life"

BY THE NUMBERS:
107 million hours - The amount of attention that the Season 5 debut of Netflix's The Crown has garnered in its first five days on the streaming service

More News

🙈 Cable news carried Donald Trump's 2024 campaign announcement, but even Fox News cut away when the former president began waxing nostalgic about former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "Remember Angela? No one talks about Angela anymore..." The NY Post made its stance clear this morning with the headline, "Florida Man Makes Announcement."

⚡️ The trailer for Will Smith's Emancipation has dropped from Apple+, and it's powerful. "Give thanks to God," Smith's character Peter tells his family at the outset. "The Lord is with us. What can a mere man do to me?"

🚨 Kevin Spacey faces seven new charges in the U.K. related to what the Crown Prosecution Service calls "a number of sexual assaults against one man between 2001 and 2004," including "one charge of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent."

🧛‍♂️ Former DC boss Walter Hamada has already conjured a new, multi-year deal at Paramount where he will architect the Melrose lot's mainstream horror pod.

🌋 Ticketmaster glitches during presales for Taylor Swift's upcoming The Eras Tour sparked an eruption of discontent on social media and reignited calls to break up the service's "monopoly."

🌶 Candice Cameron Bure took heat from Hilarie Burton Morgan, JoJo Siwa, Jodie Sweetin & GLAAD, all of whom torched the actress's recent statement that her upcoming TV movies for Great American Family will focus on "traditional marriage."

🏈 NFL Films, the production entity behind Hard Knocks that was once dubbed "the greatest in-house P.R. machine in pro sports history," has teamed with Skydance Sports to create non-game sports content, both scripted and unscripted.

🌪 Lionsgate has finally initiated the formalities to spin off Starz in an effort to "show shareholders the value of both sides of the business." It anticipates filing the deal with the SEC in March.

On the Radar

Sat - Deadline Film Contenders L.A.; Governor's Awards
Sun - Walking Dead series finale
Mon - International Emmy Awards
Tue - World Cup begins; Indie Spirit noms

Photo of the Day

Ground Zero - Photos began circulating of what were reportedly craters from Russian missiles that struck a small Polish town yesterday, killing two. The hamlet sits just across the border from Lviv which, like many other Ukranian cities, has been under heavy bombardment by Russian forces in the past 24 hours. President Biden huddled to discuss the event with other world leaders at the G20 in Bali. The Polish premier called a meeting of the country's national security council. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike an "attack on collective security." (Radio Zet)

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HBO Maxes Out; Is AMC Hiding Zombie Treasure?; Why 007 Died

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