Legendary Entertainment Partners with Sony in Distribution Deal, Leaving Warner Bros. Discovery Due to Day-and-Date Strategy
Sony’s status as an entertainment arms dealer was further confirmed on Tuesday, as the company announced a new multi-year distribution deal with production company Legendary Entertainment. Legendary is behind such recent hit movies as “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Dune.”
Prior to the deal with Sony, Legendary had been partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery. The relationship between Legendary and WarnerMedia soured in 2020, when Legendary took umbrage with the company announcing that it would release all of its 2021 movies on HBO Max on the same day that they premiered in theaters.
In a statement released that announced the deal, Sony and Legendary jointly affirmed their “ongoing commitment to theatrical distribution as a driver for other ‘downstream’ windows and the theatrical window’s long-term value for films.”
That not-so-subtle allusion to the battle with WBD suggests that Legendary still sees longer theatrical windows as crucial to films’ success. Obviously, their new partner Sony agrees, but so does current Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. In August, the WBD exec confirmed that day-and-date streaming releases would not be a significant part of the company’s future plans, saying “This idea of expensive films going direct-to-streaming, we cannot find an economic case for it. We can’t find an economic value for it.”
Given that Legendary’s views on theatrical windowing now aligns more with WBD’s, it may seem odd that the companies are parting ways. But the cost-cutting measures that are still ongoing at WBD as part of a company-wide effort to find $3 billion in savings could mean that executives see partnerships like the one with Legendary as too expensive to justify.
Despite the change from Legendary, the studio will continue to work with WBD on select films already in various stages of production, including “Dune: Part Two,” which is set to be released in theaters on Nov. 3, 2023.
It could also be that both sides simply decided a change of scenery was best for each company. It will certainly be beneficial to Sony, who gets to put Legendary’s movies into its distribution pipeline. That means that after theatrical and transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) periods, Legendary movies will eventually head to streaming on Netflix for 18 months, then to a Disney streaming service, thanks to a complicated series of streaming deals between Sony and those companies.
“Legendary is, well, legendary and we are excited and fortunate to add Josh and Mary’s strong slate to our ongoing commitment to big movies on the big screen,” said Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group.
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