Legendary Splits from WB

This doesn't bode very well for the Pacific Rim franchise.

 

I wonder what this means for World of Warcraft in 2015...

 

You've seen tracking numbers?

 

Grown Ups 2 is tracking better than it...

 

The article specifically states that its exhibiting disappointing tracking numbers not even measuring up to Grown Ups 2.

 

Thanks guys, I'm a dolt for only skimming the article.

As I said in the Rim thread, WWZ wasn't tracking well either and it blew past those tracking numbers. There is still time for Rim to get it's marketing together and surprise.

 

I think the marketing campaign has been weak at points. I mean we on the internet know all about it and are pumped, but what about more casual moviegoers?

To them, something like Grown-Ups has more appeal. Oh well .

End of an era with WB/Legendary.

 

The WB/Legendary break up feels like a bad thing to me.

 

Legendary has been very good to WB, and now with the departure of their president still fresh, this is another blow to the company imo.

 

For their big tentpole movies now, it would be weird not seeing a Legendary logo right after WB one. Its like I expect it during the opening.

 

Same as for World of Warcraft in 2009, 2010, 2011, etc.

I'll only believe that movie is happening when I'm actually sitting in a theater watching it.

 

Wow...end of an era. I wish them the best of luck.

And agreed about World of Warcraft, until I see a trailer I don't believe its gonna happen any time soon.

 

It would be crazy if Legendary somehow ended up with Disney.

Yeah, not looking too bright for Warcraft.

 

I don't know if this ends up being a good for WB, specifically DC movies (I'll get to more on that). Legendary was a huge part of WB's success, especially non-superhero/comic book hits like The Hangover, The Town and Where the Wild Things Are. They were WB's most reliable and consistent production company.

Now this could bode even worse for DC, who's only non Legendary DC movie since Batman Robin has been Green Lantern. Geoff Johns is still in charge and while I will say blame should go all around, if I had to blame one guy for Green Lantern, it's Johns for pretty much forcing elements of his Green Lanterns stories into movie when it did not fit the screenplay at all.

 

This was bound to happen and Thomas Tull made up his mind a long before this departure, starting with his conflict with WB on the Dark Knight Rises's BO %.

This is why Legendary fired those TWO in-house WB producers from Warners, and replaced them with Mary Parent, who is also producing 'Pac Rim'. Legendary knew they wanted out and wanted to keep their IPs if possible without any WB baggage. So if Legendary goes, so does Pac Rim and possibly Godzilla.

And while you may snicker at 'Warcraft', Thomas Tull hired Duncan Jones and they're fast tracking that thing, hopefully with more announcements to come. I think Tull means business and he's in the business to move projects faster than ever. Hell, even I never thought we would see 'Godzilla' move so quickly. So 'Warcraft' is out of WB too, and why WB picked up the 'Dungeons & Dragons' property for themselves. The problem is, D&D ain't no Warcraft.

Speculation: ME thinks that the departure of Jeff Robinov, which is both good (he's apparently difficult and cold to talk to) and bad (he has good relationships with directors like Nolan) is a last ditch effort to keep Legendary at WB, since Robinov has been critical of Tull's practices, etc. That's why the new WB CEO was so cold towards Robinov, even in the light of 'Man of Steel's success.

 

So you're saying getting rid of Robinov was for naught since Legendary is leaving anyways?

 

Kinda. It looks like that. So what do they have now? They have a new WB CEO, and now that's it. Legendary is gone; and Cuaron's and Nolan's buddy Robinov is gone.

BUT..if you look at some of the future WB projects without Legendary, I think the new CEO is pretty broad. He wants to reach out to all genres, including buying out some indie dramas:

-Jupiter Ascending
-All You Need is Kill
-Her
-The Lego Movie
-Prisoners
-Inherent Vice

To me, the movies listed above are fairly ambitious and could be critical/BO darlings.

 

Of Fox, Universal, and Sony. Which one would Pacific Rim be in good hands with? Should a sequel ever be greenlit?

 

I think Universal would be the most hungry. They lack enough franchises, besides Fast/Furious and Jurassic Park. Also, Del Toro has a relationship with Universal so that can help.

 

Well FOX does have a history of hating giant robots.

 

A sequel? I'm just hoping Pacific Rim doesn't bomb.

 

Fox is okay if they are regulated by the right producers and production companies. For example, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed is with Fox but Fox has no say in the creative end; just distribution.