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WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar on HBO Max, the Restructure, and Whether ‘Tenet’ Will Go the Way of ‘Mulan’ - Variety
Aug 07, 2020 3 mins, 6 secs

The other change, which is as important, is the global rollout of HBO Max, under Andy now as well… It’s very important in our future that we go global, that we not only go direct-to-consumer, but we also go global… There’s a fantastic executive named Johannes Larcher who actually has taken both Hulu and other over-the-top services to international locales.

And that’s what I’m so excited about being — is that Casey and his newly expanded team really are going to be able to program for a lot of different sensibilities.

Because this really is our move to bring together what was two different studios and content organizations and bring them together as one, and to make the changes that we’re making with Casey, most pointedly.

So shame on us if we’re not constantly moving forward as an organism, but no, you shouldn’t expect major changes along the lines of this.

When AT&T purchased WarnerMedia, John did what I think is the most important earth-moving in the story of WarnerMedia, which is — it was three distinct businesses between Turner, HBO and Warner Bros.

And so what I’m doing in Chapter Two of that, which is tightening our focus so that we can go from historically a wholesaling business, like all media companies have been over the last hundred years, and really moving into the future, which is becoming a consumer business… which means going direct to consumer and going global.

I don’t mean to suggest that we’re not already global today.

But when I talk about going global, I think the opportunities that we could have 70% or more of our customers and our revenue outside the US.

— and that really is a change from where we are today.

Thank you for the question, because it’s humbling… I think one of the things that is so important for WarnerMedia and how I’m thinking about it is a couple of things.

At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to move the world through stories.

We’re trying to move consumers through stories, and I think if we start there.

The other thing that I hope to be able to bring to the team — I think it’s very important that we feel empowered to take risks in serving customers.

But I believe in the fullness of time, given how talented this team is, that we’re going to do great work for customers.

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time, obviously, with medical experts, and trying to get as close as I can to where the pandemic is heading — vaccines, research and all those other things.

I think that will happen — it’s a question of when and in what countries and what cities and towns, because I think it really is going to be very surgical in terms of the differences.

I think it’s fair to say that from a theatrical perspective, some of the things we’re seeing, including “Mulan,” they’re very pragmatic executions given that it is what is is

That said, I think it’s also fair to say that there will be changes in a theatrical distribution

We’re going to lean into the actual distribution incredibly aggressively going forward

But I also think that — is the window going to stay at 130 plus days

But I think, if you look at our behavior, we’re believers in the theatrical experience, and are also of course in very close communication with everyone in the exhibition industry, about the topic of windows and about how we can collectively serve consumers in the best way possible going forward

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