Warner Bros. Revealed Its Content Strategy

The company has recently outlined an aggressive content strategy for the Warner Bros. Studio, mainly aimed at increasing profits. The Studio announced a bold expansion of the industry’s broadest theatrical slate, focused on the largest and most important global franchises.

Warner Bros. Pictures is planning to release 3 LEGO-branded movies over the next 4 years. They should follow the success of the recent “The LEGO Movie”, which gathered $468 million in worldwide box office. They will start with “Ninjago” in 2016, followed by Batman in “The LEGO Batman Movie” in 2017 and the sequel, “The LEGO Movie 2,” scheduled for 2018.

In addition, Warner Bros. Pictures will release 3 films over the next 6 years, based on best-selling author J.K. Rowling’s book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. Finally, Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema are going to release a slate of at least ten films – along with stand-alone Batman and Superman movies, which expands this prized universe of characters, including “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, two parts of “Justice League”, “Aquaman”, “Cyborg” and “Green Lantern”.

Talking about the television sector, Warner Bros. Television Group is recognized as the undisputed industry leader. The company provides 32 shows to the 5 broadcast networks and an overall roster of over sixty shows among network, cable, first-run syndication and animation. Warner Bros. Television Group is going to grow its leadership in all sectors, including cable, premium platform and children programming.

The Studio’s programs include such popular entertainment series as “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Voice”, as well as “Arrow,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Bachelor” franchise, and many others.

For Turner, Studio’s “Rizzoli & Isles” and “Major Crimes” remain two of the top 3 scripted series for 2014, and the most popular shows on TNT. The company also has a number of future projects at TNT, including a pilot production order for a drama about the Florida cocaine trade in the 1970s, and is in development on “Titans”, based upon the DC Comics characters.

The company’s first series of “The Leftovers” debuted this summer at HBO and has already been picked up for a second season. In addition, the Studio has also produced the pilot “Westworld” and is developing other projects at the company.

As for Warner Bros. Animation, it is producing new series, including the upcoming “Be Cool Scooby-Doo!” and “The Tom and Jerry Show”. In the meantime, its “Teen Titans Go!” ranks as the #1 show in its timeslot.

Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution has recently licensed the exclusive subscription-video-on-demand rights to the successful series of “Friends” – to Netflix in the United States and Canada. Since 2015, Netflix members will be able to watch the entire 236 episode run of the series. “Friends” remain an enormous linear hit on cable and in broadcast syndication. In addition, the company also sold the off-network subscription-video-on-demand rights to the hit series “Person of Interest” to Netflix in the US. It is known that the first 3 seasons that currently air on CBS will be available in fall 2015.

The company’s management pointed out that those deals are just the latest examples of how its hit series can serve as annuities for decades beyond their initial broadcast. For example, within the last 15 years, WBTVG has produced 20 series that have reached the 100-episode milestone.