Warner Bros. Discovery reported a $148 million loss in the third quarter, hitting a sour note as the company began fielding interest from would-be buyers as Hollywood braces for a transforming deal.
Earnings for the entertainment company that includes HBO, CNN and the Warner Bros. film and TV studios fell short of analyst expectations. A year ago, the company reported profit of $135 million for the third quarter.
Revenue of $9.05 billion declined 6% from the year-ago period. The company swung to a loss of 6 cents a share, compared to last year’s earnings of 5 cents a share.
Still, Chief Executive David Zaslav spent much of Thursday’s call with analysts touting his company’s underlying strengths — while avoided giving details about the company’s sale.
“It’s fair to say that we have an active process underway,” Zaslav said.
Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday reiterated it is forging ahead with previously announced plans to split into two separate entities by next spring. However, the Warner board acknowledged last month that it was also entertaining offers for the entire company — or its parts — after David Ellison’s Paramount expressed its interest with formal bids.
Paramount has made three offers, including a $58 billion in cash and stock for all of Warner Bros. Discovery. That bid would pay Warner stockholders $23.50 a share.
The Ellison family appears determined to win one of Hollywood’s most storied entertainment companies to pair with Paramount, which the Ellisons and RedBird Capital Partners acquired in August.
But Warner Bros. Discovery’s board, including Zaslav, voted unanimously to reject Paramount’s offers and instead opened the auction to other bidders, which is expected to lead to the firm changing hands for the third time in a decade.
Board members are betting the company, which has shown flickers of a turnaround, is worth more than the offers on the table. Despite its rocky third-quarter results, Warner’s stock held its ground in early morning trading at around $22.60 a share.
“Overall we are very bullish,” Zaslav said of the company’s business prospects.
“When you look at our films like ‘Superman,’ ‘Weapons’ and ‘One Battle After Another,’ the global reach of HBO Max and the diversity of our network’s offerings, we’ve managed to bring the best, most treasured traditions of Warner Bros. forward into a new era of entertainment and [a] new media landscape,” he said.
But the company’s results underscored its business challenges.
The studio witnessed a major decline in advertising revenue in the third quarter, reporting $1.41 billion, down 16% from the previous year, which executives attributed to declines in the audience for its domestic linear channels, including CNN, TNT and TLC.
Distribution revenue also took a hit, as the company reported sales of $4.7 billion, a decrease of 4% compared to last year.
Studio revenue increased 24% to $3.3 billion, powered by the success of DC Studios’ “Superman,” horror flick “Weapons” and the latest installment of “The Conjuring.” But even those box office wins couldn’t totally offset shortfalls in other areas of its content business.
Last year, the company was able to sub-license its rights to broadcast the Olympics in Europe, which pushed content revenue to $2.72 billion. But this year, revenue was down 3% to $2.65 billion.
Burbank-based Warner Bros. has had a string of success in theaters, with nine films opening at the top spot globally at the box office. The studio recently surpassed $4 billion in worldwide box office revenue, making it the first studio to do so this year. Warner Bros. last achieved that milestone in 2019.
Zaslav would like to continue with Warner’s break-up plans, which were announced last June.
The move would allow him to stay on to manage a smaller Hollywood-focused entity made up of the Warner Bros. studios, HBO, streaming service HBO Max and the company’s vast library, which includes Harry Potter movies and award-winning television shows such as “The Pitt.”
The company’s large portfolio of cable channels, including HGTV, Food Network and Cartoon Network, would become Discovery Global and operate independently.
Beyond Paramount, Philadelphia-based Comcast, Netflix and Amazon have expressed interest in considering buying parts of the company.
The company said its third quarter loss of $148 million was the result of a $1.3 billion expense, including restructuring costs.
NBCUniversal owner Comcast is indeed interested in some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets.
On a Thursday call with analysts to discuss third-quarter earnings, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh suggested the Philadelphia giant might bid for certain Warner assets, primarily the Warner Bros. film and television studios and its streaming service HBO Max.
Comcast isn’t looking to acquire the entire company or Warner’s large portfolio of cable channels that include CNN, TBS and Food Network. Instead, Cavanagh suggested that Comcast’s interest would be more narrow.
He noted that NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. have compatible businesses. Comcast wants to grow its studios business and its struggling streaming service, Peacock, which lost $217 million during the quarter.
“You should expect us to look at things that are trading in our space … It’s our job to try to figure out if there are ways to add value,” Cavanagh told analysts.
But he added a note of caution, saying the company didn’t feel that a merger was “necessary.”
“The bar is very high for us to pursue any [merger] transactions,” he said.
The Warner Bros. Discovery auction comes amid deep turmoil in the industry. Traditional entertainment companies, including Warner and NBCUniversal, have long relied heavily on cable programming fees to boost profit but consumers have been scaling back on pay-TV subscriptions amid the move to streaming.
To address that challenge, Comcast is spinning off its cable channels, including CNBC, MSNBC, USA and Golf Channel, into a separately traded company called Versant. That process is expected to be complete this year.
As part of the transition, the liberal-leaning MSNBC is changing its name to MS Now and dropping the peacock from its network logo, reflecting its pending exit from NBC, which will remain part of Comcast.
Cavanagh suggested that Comcast would not double down in a declining cable channel business that it was already exiting.
But Warner has other compelling businesses, including HBO and its Warner Bros. film and television studio. The Warner Bros. studio has released a string of movie blockbusters this year, including “Superman” and “A Minecraft Movie.”
Warner and NBCUniversal are investing in their respective streaming services but both lag Netflix, YouTube and Walt Disney Co. in terms of subscribers and engagement. Peacock has 41 million subscribers; the service has lost billions of dollars since Comcast launched it five years ago.
To shore up Peacock and the NBC broadcast network, Comcast has doubled down on sports, including striking a $27-billion, 10-year deal for NBA basketball, a contract that kicked in this month with the new season. (Nielsen ratings for the inaugural NBA game on NBC last week were strong — nearly 5 million viewers).
Most analysts believe that Ellison’s Paramount is in the best position to win Warner Bros. Discovery. They point to the Ellison family’s determination, wealth and political connections. Tech titan Larry Ellison, who is backing his son’s bid, is the second-richest man in the world behind Elon Musk, and President Trump views the elder Ellison as a good friend.
In contrast, Trump has displayed a dim view of Comcast Chairman and Chief Executive Brian Roberts, in large part, because of Comcast’s ownership of MSNBC, which Trump has accused of being an arm of the Democratic National Committee.
The tension has led observers to conclude that Comcast would face a stormy regulatory review process with Trump overseeing the Department of Justice, which would likely perform an anti-trust review of any major transaction for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Concerns about Comcast’s ability to get deals through the Trump administration may be overblown, Cavanagh said.
“I think more things are viable than maybe some of the public commentary [suggests],” Cavanagh said.
Paramount Chairman David Ellison’s latest offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery contained a twist:
Should Paramount, backed by tech billionaire Larry Ellison, pull off the purchase, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav could stay on to help lead the combined enterprise.
“They’re sweetening the pot,” Paul Hardart, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said of the Ellison family. “It just shows all the little arrows in their quiver they’re using to try to push this deal.”
David Ellison’ unexpected olive branch to Zaslav was contained in a letter this month to Warner Bros. Discovery’s board that offered $58 billion in cash and stock for the entire company. The move underscores the family’s determination to win the entertainment company that includes HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. film and television studios — and an obstacle in their path.
After hustling for decades to get to the big stage, Zaslav, 65, isn’t ready to relinquish the reins. He’s eager to prove critics wrong and complete a turnaround after three painful years of setbacks and cost cuts to reduce the company’s mountain of debt.
Warner Bros. Discovery board members, including Zaslav, have unanimously voted to reject Paramount’s three bids, viewing them as too low and not in the best interest of shareholders, according to two people close to the company who were not authorized to comment.
The board supports Zaslav’s desire to forge ahead with a planned split of the company next spring. But it also has opened the auction to other potential suitors, which is expected to lead to the firm changing hands for the third time in a decade.
Representatives of Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount declined to comment.
David Ellison’s audacious offer is being guaranteed by his father, Larry Ellison, the world’s second richest man with a net worth that exceeds $340 billion. The Ellisons’ proposal includes paying 80% cash to Warner shareholders and the rest in stock, according to two people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to comment. The most recent offer was $23.50 a share.
The Ellisons began their campaign last month, just weeks after David Ellison’s Skydance Media, along with RedBird Capital Partners, picked up the keys to Paramount, which includes CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and the Melrose Avenue film studio, which has been depleted by decades of underinvestment.
The proposed addition of the more vibrant Warner Bros. would give the Ellisons an unparalleled entertainment portfolio with DC Comics including Superman, “Top Gun,” Scooby-Doo, Harry Potter, “The Matrix” and “The Gilded Age.”
The family would control streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+, nearly three dozen cable channels, including HGTV, Food Network and TBS, and two legacy news operations — CNN and CBS News.
It would also accelerate the trend of uber billionaires, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, of owning prominent news, entertainment and social media platforms. Larry Ellison also is part of a U.S.-based consortium lined up by President Trump to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners.
“If a trade deal with China is imminent, and TikTok would be aligned, then it would create a new media colossus, the likes of which we haven’t seen,” said veteran executive Jonathan Miller, chief executive of the investment firm Integrated Media Co.
Paramount is in talks to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times; Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
The drama is unfolding as Paramount on Wednesday slashed 1,000 workers in the first round of cuts since Ellison took over. A second wave of layoffs — affecting another 1,000 workers — is expected in the coming weeks, helping fulfill a promise made to Wall Street by Ellison and Redbird to reduce expenses by more than $2 billion.
Combining with Warner Bros. would bring more layoffs, analysts said, and a potential hollowing out of a historic studio.
“Merger after merger in the media industry has harmed workers, diminished competition and free speech, and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars better invested in organic growth,” the Writers Guild of America West, said last week in a statement in opposition to the proposed unification. “Combining Warner Bros. with Paramount or another major studio or streamer would be a disaster for writers, for consumers, and for competition.”
Critics point to a long list of media merger misfires, including the disastrous AOL Time Warner merger a quarter century ago. Some critics contend Walt Disney Co.’s $71-billion purchase of much of Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment holdings didn’t live up to expectations, and AT&T whiffed its $85-billion deal for Time Warner, handing it to Zaslav’s Discovery four years later for $43 billion.
The New York native, a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Ukraine, had spent 16 years running the Discovery cable channel group, a respectable business, but one that lacked Hollywood flash.
Zaslav grew up on the fringe of New York City, in Ramapo, N.Y., where he’d been a promising tennis player who proudly wore his athletic gear to middle school. Tennis was his identity — until he started getting beat by players he used to whip.
Zaslav’s coach sat him down, bluntly saying he wasn’t putting in the work.
“I vowed that day I would never be outworked again,” Zaslav said during a 2023 commencement address to Boston University graduates. Underlings have long marveled at his indefatigable work ethic.
The speech was meant to be his triumphant return to his alma mater. Zaslav had finally made it to Hollywood, where he was now holding court in an exquisite corner office that had belonged to studio founder Jack Warner.
Zaslav had big plans to turn around Warner Bros. But, in Boston, he suffered a beatdown.
The Writers Guild of America had just gone on strike against his and other Hollywood studios. Protesters heckled Zaslav. Students booed. A plane flew overhead, waving a banner that read: “David Zaslav Pay Your Writers.”
He had assumed control a year earlier, in April 2022, just as Wall Street soured on media companies that were spending wildly to build streaming services to compete with Netflix.
Zaslav inherited a venture bleeding billions of dollars to get into streaming. The merger itself saddled the company with $55 billion of debt. Warner’s stock plummeted.
He and his team spent the first few years slashing divisions, canceling TV programs and contracts, and shelving movies. To further reduce expenses, the company laid off thousands of workers. Hollywood soon viewed Zaslav with derision.
It didn’t help that Zaslav has long been one of the most handsomely compensated executives in America.
There were high-profile stumbles, including jettisoning staff of the tiny Turner Classic Movies channel and an ill-conceived rebrand of its streamer to “Max” before changing the name back to HBO Max.
“The Warner Bros. Discovery merger was a well-intended failure,” Hardart said. “The cable subscriber base shrank at a faster rate than most people had forecast. … Thousands have lost their jobs, the HBO brand has been reimagined and reimagined, films have been mothballed and the future of the Warner Bros. studio is today uncertain.”
Warner Bros. Discovery paid down $20 billion in debt, but $35 billion remains. The debt load has nearly suffocated the company, making it a vulnerable target.
“There was a lot of fixing that David Zaslav and his team had to do,” Bank of America media analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich said in a recent interview. “It’s been three years of incredibly heavy lifting — but that’s pretty much done now.”
In a note to investors last week, Ehrlich wrote Warner’s strong franchises, including DC Comics, and its voluminous library make it “an extremely attractive potential acquisition target,” one that could fetch $30 a share. Her firm carries a “buy” rating on the stock.
Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav and AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey shake hands on May 17, 2021, in New York City.
(Preston Bradford / Discovery)
Last summer, Zaslav announced plans to split the company in two halves.
Zaslav would run Warner Bros., which would consist of the Burbank studios, HBO and the HBO Max streaming service. Longtime lieutenant Gunnar Wiedenfels would helm Discovery Global, made up of the firm’s international businesses and basic cable channels, which face an uncertain future in the streaming era.
Those who know Zaslav believe he’s working to stave off the Ellison takeover, in part, because he wants the chance to bring the company back to its glory, which would ultimately make it more valuable for its investors and prospective buyers.
For Warner management, that’s part of the rub. The Ellisons showed up just as the company was displaying signs of a turnaround, including a hot streak by Warner Bros. that includes “A Minecraft Movie,” Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” James Gunn’s “Superman,” Formula One adventure “F1: The Movie,” and horror flick “Weapons.”
Larry, from left, Megan and David Ellison attend the premiere of Paramount Pictures’ “Terminator Genisys” at Dolby Theatre on June 28, 2015.
(Lester Cohen / WireImage)
Ellison’s bidding was designed to thwart Warner’s planned corporate breakup.
For now, analysts said, Zaslav and the Warner board’s current strategy is solid because they have effectively driven up the stock price, which has doubled to $21 a share since the Ellison’s interest became known in mid-September.
“They are doing the right thing,” Hardart said. “In any sale, you try to beat the bushes and get as many people interested. But at some point the board is going to have to make a decision.”
Added one investor: “They’ve gotten Paramount-Skydance to bid against itself, and that only goes so far.”
Analysts expect Philadelphia giant Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal, and potentially Netflix, Apple or Amazon to take a look at the company’s studio, library and streaming assets.
But many see the Ellison’s Skydance as having the edge.
Paramount, in its recent letter to the Warner board, argued that it was the best and most logical buyer.
“What Skydance offers WBD, in many ways, is what it offered Paramount: The ability to be aggressive and push all aspects of the business in a way that most people or companies that have less capital just can’t do,” Miller said. “They are deploying real capital, and they are being the most aggressive folks in the industry right now.”
Warner Bros. Discovery has officially acknowledged the company is up for sale, marking the third time in a decade that its storied assets have been on the auction block.
The company’s board announced Tuesday that it has initiated “a review of strategic alternatives … in light of unsolicited interest the Company has received from multiple parties for both the entire company and Warner Bros.”
The Ellison family, which owns Paramount, started the bidding late last month. With financial backing from his father, Larry Ellison, David Ellison is looking to build an entertainment juggernaut. The family and RedBird Capital Partners finalized their takeover of Paramount in August, and has since made at least one offer for its rival. Paramount wants to buy the entire company, including its basic cable channels that include CNN, TNT, Food Network and HGTV.
Warner Bros. Discovery stock soared 11% Tuesday to more than $20 a share, valuing the company at $50 billion. That’s the highest level since Discovery swallowed the larger WarnerMedia in April 2022.
The company did not disclose the other entities that have expressed interest in buying the company as a whole, or its stable of assets, including premium cable channel HBO, the HBO Max streaming service and the legendary Warner Bros. film and television studio and its campus in Burbank.
“It’s no surprise that the significant value of our portfolio is receiving increased recognition by others in the market,” Chief Executive David Zaslav said in a statement announcing the strategic review.
“After receiving interest from multiple parties, we have initiated a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives to identify the best path forward to unlock the full value of our assets,” he said.
The company last summer unveiled its intention to split into two separate publicly traded entities — an arrangement that most observers saw as the unofficial kickoff of the company’s sale.
That separation process will continue, Warner Bros. Discovery said Tuesday.
The company intended to create two stand-alone entities. One would include the Warner Bros. studio and its expansive library of shows and movies, as well as the HBO Max streaming service. Zaslav was planning to run that enterprise.
The second company, Discovery Global, would comprise the basic cable channels and international operations. Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels would lead that operation.
“We view this as a move to initiate the entire bidding process now, for all bidders, even though not every bidder may be interested in all of WBD,” Raymond James analysts Ric Prentiss and Brent Penter wrote in a Tuesday note to investors.
“WBD is telling other bidders they can bid now instead of waiting for the split, or perhaps they even need to bid now since waiting may prove to be too late,” the analysts said.
Warner Bros. Discovery board intends to “evaluate a broad range of strategic options,” including “an alternative separation structure that would enable a merger of Warner Bros. and spin-off of Discovery Global to our shareholders,” it said in a statement.
“Our decision to initiate this review underscores the Board’s commitment to considering all opportunities to determine the best value for our shareholders,” Warner Bros. Discovery Chair Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., said in the statement. “We continue to believe that our planned separation to create two distinct, leading media companies will create compelling value. That said, we determined taking these actions to broaden our scope is in the best interest of shareholders.”
The company did not set a deadline or timetable for the strategic alternatives review, although it had previously said the separation into two distinct companies — Warner Bros. and Discovery Global — would be complete by April.
TD Cowen media analyst Doug Creutz indicated Tuesday’s announcement was simply a formality because investors were well aware the company was in play.
“We continue to think a transaction with [Paramount] … is reasonably likely; we are more skeptical that other, more attractive bidders will emerge,” Creutz wrote.
The announcement hit as Warner Bros. Discovery employees already are nervous about the process and the proposed Ellison takeover, which observers believe would spark a massive consolidation and the elimination of hundreds more jobs.
Some already were suffering from deal fatigue as many are veterans of the company’s two previous sales.
In October 2016, the company, then known as Time Warner Inc., announced its sale to phone giant AT&T. President Trump, who was first elected the following month, strenuously objected to the merger. The government challenged the union, and it took nearly two years to win federal approval. The AT&T years were turbulent. The company restructured, then spent billions to build the HBO Max streaming service.
After three years, AT&T threw in the towel after lining up Zaslav, who had long managed the much smaller Discovery. The April 2022 sale to Discovery burdened the company with more than $50 billion in debt.
Since then, Zaslav and his team have tried to streamline the operations, leading to thousands of layoffs. The company’s debt now hovers around $35 billion.
Allen & Company, J.P. Morgan and Evercore have been retained as financial advisors to Warner Bros. Discovery. Wachtell Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP are serving as legal counsel.
Paramount, backed by billionaire Larry Ellison and his family, has officially opened the bidding for rival Warner Bros. Discovery — a potential massive merger that would dramatically change Hollywood.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s board rejected Paramount’s initial bid of about $20 a share, but talks are continuing, according to two people close to the companies who were not authorized to speak publicly.
One of the knowledgeable sources said Paramount was preparing a second bid.
Warner Bros. Discovery owns HBO, CNN, TBS, Food Network, HGTV and the prolific Warner Bros. movie and television studio in Burbank.
Ellison, one of the world’s richest men, is committed to helping his 42-year-old son, David, pull off the industry-reshaping acquisition and has agreed to help finance the bid, two people close to the situation said.
The younger Ellison, who entered the movie business 15 years ago by launching his Skydance Media production company, was catapulted into the major leagues this summer with the Ellison family’s purchase of Paramount’s controlling stake.
Since then, David Ellison and his team have made bold moves to help Paramount shake more than a decade of doldrums. Buying Warner Bros. Discovery would be their most audacious move yet. The merger would lead to the elimination of one of the original Hollywood film studios, and could see the consolidation of CNN with Paramount-owned CBS News.
Representatives for Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
Industry veterans were stunned by the speed of Paramount’s play for Warner Bros. Discovery, noting that top executives had begun working on the bid even as they were putting finishing touches on the Paramount takeover.
One of Paramount’s top executives is a former Goldman Sachs banker, Andy Gordon, who was a ranking member of RedBird Capital Partners, the private equity firm that has teamed up with the Ellisons and has a significant stake in Paramount.
Paramount’s interest prompted stocks of both companies to soar, driving up the market value for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Paramount’s offer of $20 a share for Warner Bros. Discovery was less than what some analysts and sources believe the company’s parts are worth, leading the Warner Bros. Discovery board to rebuff the offer, sources said.
But many believe that Paramount needs more content to better compete in a landscape that’s dominated by tech giants such as Netflix and Amazon.
Paramount has reason to move quickly.
Warner Bros. Discovery had previously announced that it was planning to divide its assets into two companies by next April. One company, Warner Bros., would be made up of HBO, the HBO Max streaming service and the Burbank-based movie and television studios. Current Chief Executive David Zaslav would run that enterprise.
The other arm would be called Discovery Global and consist of the linear cable television channels, which have seen their fortunes fall with consumers’ shift to streaming.
The Paramount bid was seen as an attempt to slip in under the wire because other large companies, including Amazon, Apple and Netflix, may have been interested in buying the studios, streaming service and leafy studio lot in Burbank.
However, Netflix’s co-chief executive Greg Peters appeared to downplay Netflix’s interest during an appearance last week at the Bloomberg Screentime media conference. “We come from a deep heritage of being builders rather than buyers,” Peters said.
Some analysts believe Paramount’s proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery could ultimately prevail because Zaslav and his team have made huge cuts during the past three years to get the various businesses profitable after buying the company from AT&T, which left the company burdened with a heavy debt load. The company has paid down billions of dollars of debt, but still carries nearly $35 billion of debt on its books.
Others point to Warner Bros.’ recent successes at the box office as evidence that Paramount is offering too little.
Despite the tumult at the corporate level, Warner Bros.’ film studio has had a successful year. Its fortunes turned around in April with the release of “A Minecraft Movie,” which grossed nearly $958 million worldwide, followed by a string of hits including Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” James Gunn’s “Superman” and horror flick “Weapons.”
Last week at Bloomberg’s Screentime media conference, Ellison declined to comment on Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. or even whether his company had already made a bid. But he did touch briefly on consolidation in Hollywood, saying, “Ironically, it was David Zaslav last year who said that consolidation in the media business is important.”
“There are a lot of options out there,” he added, but declined to elaborate.
After news of Paramount’s interest surfaced, Warner Bros. Discovery‘s stock jumped more than 30%. It climbed as much as $20 a share, but closed Friday at $17.10, down 3.2%.
Paramount also has seen its stock surge by about 12%. Shares finished Friday at $17, down 5.4%
Warner Bros. Discovery is now valued at $42 billion. Paramount is considerably smaller, worth about $18.5 billion.
Warner Bros. said Wednesday it will renew the contract for studio heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy after the two orchestrated a string of back-to-back hits at the box office.
The news is a notable reversal of fortune for the co-chairs and co-chief executives of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group.
Only six months ago, the pair was on thin ice after a series of underperforming films, including Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi thriller “Mickey 17” and the Robert De Niro-led mob movie “The Alto Knights.”
But the studio’s prospects dramatically changed in April with the release of “A Minecraft Movie,” which hauled in nearly $958 million worldwide. Shortly after, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” became a lasting hit at the box office, followed by “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “F1 The Movie” (which Warner Bros. distributed), James Gunn’s “Superman,” horror flick “Weapons” and the final installment of “The Conjuring.”
In a memo to staff Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav credited Abdy and De Luca for the improved performance at the box office.
He touted the studio’s “balanced” slate with big blockbusters, films based on established intellectual property, horror movies and original works.
“Mike and Pam’s unwavering leadership and commitment to this business has been critical to our success this year,” he wrote. “We have a lot to be grateful for and much to celebrate including several of this year’s best reviewed movies, many of which have pierced the culture zeitgeist in profound ways while also delighting moviegoers around the world.”
Warner Bros. recently surpassed $4 billion at the global box office, the first time it has done so since 2019 and the first studio to reach this mark this year.
“We have the privilege to do this job because of the support and trust [Zaslav] has put in us, and in all of you,” De Luca and Abdy said in an internal note to employees. “We could not be more excited to be leading this team as we introduce an exciting slate of films in the coming years and continue making every film experience an event worthy of the Warner Bros. shield.”
Walt Disney Co., Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday sued a Chinese artificial intelligence firm called MiniMax for copyright infringement, alleging its AI service generates iconic characters including Darth Vader, the Minions and Wonder Woman without the studios’ permission.
“MiniMax’s bootlegging business model and defiance of U.S. copyright law are not only an attack on Plaintiffs and the hard-working creative community that brings the magic of movies to life, but are also a broader threat to the American motion picture industry,” the companies said in their complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
The entertainment companies requested that MiniMax be restrained from further infringement. They are seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work, as well as attorney fees and costs.
This is the latest round of copyright lawsuits that major studios have brought against AI companies over intellectual property concerns. In June, Disney and Universal Pictures sued AI firm Midjourney for copyright infringement. Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery also sued Midjourney.
Shanghai-based MiniMax has a service called Hailuo AI, which is marketed as a “Hollywood studio in your pocket” and used characters including the Joker and Groot in its ads without the studios’ permission, the studios’ lawsuit said. Users can type in a text prompt requesting “Star Wars’” iconic character Yoda or DC Comics’ Superman, and Hailuo AI can pull up high quality and downloadable images or video of the character, according to the document.
“MiniMax completely disregards U.S. copyright law and treats Plaintiffs’ valuable copyrighted characters like its own,” the lawsuit said. “MiniMax’s copyright infringement is willful and brazen.”
“Given the rapid advancement in technology in the AI video generation field … it is only a matter of time until Hailuo AI can generate unauthorized, infringing videos featuring Plaintiffs’ copyrighted characters that are substantially longer, and even eventually the same duration as a movie or television program,” the lawsuit said.
MiniMax did not immediately return a request for comment.
Hollywood is grappling with significant challenges, including the threat of AI, as companies consolidate and reduce their expenses as production costs rise. Many actors and writers, still recovering from strikes that took place in 2023, are scrambling to find jobs. Some believe the growth of AI has threatened their livelihoods as tech tools can replicate iconic characters with text prompts.
While some studios have sued AI companies, others are looking for ways to partner with them. For example, Lionsgate has partnered with AI startup Runway to help with behind the scenes processes such as storyboarding.
The Ellison era of Paramount was barely a month old when another major potential Hollywood merger appeared on the horizon.
Last week the share prices of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery surged following reports that the former was preparing a bid to take over the latter with a mostly cash offer backed by the Larry Ellison family. This would come a remarkably short time after Skydance Media, the production company founded by Larry’s movie producer son David, combined with Paramount in an $8-billion deal.
A merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery would have profound ramifications for the media and entertainment industry.
It would consolidate two of Hollywood’s oldest studios, Paramount and Warner Bros., in the most significant movie business merger since Walt Disney Co. devoured the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox in 2019. The film industry has still not recovered from having the 20th Century Fox studio effectively taken off the board.
Additionally, a merger would put two mass-market streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max, under the same roof, probably leading to the eventual melding of the two. The Ellison clan’s move would also bring Warner Bros. Discovery’s linear TV networks, including CNN, HGTV, Food Network and TNT, together with Paramount’s Comedy Central, MTV and BET.
All of this would lead to substantial “synergies,” meaning cuts and layoffs, at a time when the job market in entertainment and corporate media is already fraught as the industry reconfigures itself. Paramount is currently bracing for thousands of layoffs as the new owners seek $2 billion in cost savings.
That’s not to mention the changes that would likely come if CNN came under the control of Ellison.
Larry Ellison, the Oracle Corp. billionaire who, depending on the day, is one of the world’s two wealthiest people alongside Elon Musk, is known to be Trump-friendly. The effects of the Ellison reign are already being felt at Paramount’s CBS News, where a former conservative think tank leader was recently appointed as ombudsman and where center-right and staunchly pro-Israel journalist Bari Weiss is expected to have an influential role after Ellison buys her digital media startup the Free Press.
So why is all this happening now, and why so quickly?
After all, the Wall Street Journal first reported Ellison’s interest in Warner Bros. Discovery on Sept. 11, just weeks after the Paramount-Skydance combo closed on Aug. 7.
In a sense, this scenario is unsurprising. Wall Street has been practically begging for another wave of consolidation in the media business, as the audience for theatrical movies shrinks, cord-cutting guts TV profits and more of viewers’ attention turns to YouTube, Netflix and TikTok. Most of the legacy entertainment companies don’t have the streaming firepower to compete. They need to combine to measure up.
But the timing is unexpected, and the unavoidable political considerations are particularly interesting.
With Trump in the White House, the political winds are clearly blowing in the Ellisons’ direction, after the Skydance and RedBird Capital team that bid for Paramount placated federal regulators with promises to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and to make CBS News more balanced, at least in eyes of Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
Paramount paid $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” Kamala Harris interview. Ellison and his team want to make a Warner Bros. deal happen when a friendly administration is in power.
Paramount has lately upped its spending, acquiring the rights to UFC (run by Trump friend Dana White), locking down “South Park” for Paramount+ and announcing a deal with Activision to make a “Call of Duty” movie.
Also of note is that Ellison’s group is coming in with an offer for the whole company even as Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav prepares to split the media giant into two firms: one with the studios, HBO and streaming businesses, and the other with the TV networks. Putting in a bid now could dissuade other potential buyers that might be interested in just one part.
Apple and Amazon have long been seen as potential bidders for Warner Bros. (Amazon already owns MGM), but it’s unlikely they would want a bunch of TV channels that are on the brink of being orphaned. Analysts have speculated that one reason for the proposed split was to make the studio and streaming assets more attractive to buyers by uncoupling them from the challenged pay-TV business. That split is expected to take place sometime in mid-2026.
Paramount’s bid could also preempt those that may want to do a deal, but are firmly on the Trump administration’s bad side. NBCUniversal owner Comcast Corp.’s CEO Brian Roberts has been the subject of disparaging Trump missives. Comcast is liberal network MSNBC’s parent company (for now). A regulatory review involving a perceived Trump enemy would likely not go well.
Of course, competitive bids could emerge anyway, for example, if a private equity player such as Apollo Global decided to get into the mix after previously expressing interest in Paramount through an unsuccessful team-up with Sony.
Big mergers in media and entertainment often fail, and they’re always disruptive.
Warner Bros. itself was involved in some of the most disastrous deals ever: AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner, and before that, the media company’s ill-fated marriage with AOL. Warner Bros. is now on a box-office hot streak, but that has come after years of Zaslav taking heat for killing projects such as “Batgirl.”
Such deals result in mass layoffs. Movie theater owners will most likely see darker days ahead as they’ll be minus yet another big supplier of blockbusters. Journalist Richard Rushfield, of the Ankler newsletter, demanded that somebody do something to stop it. We’ll see.
An Oracle scion buying two studios one after the other probably wasn’t the tech takeover of Hollywood that many people envisioned. Analysts long assumed that Apple would be the one to buy an entertainment powerhouse — maybe even Disney — despite having not shown any particular inclination for doing so. But though it’s not the Silicon Valley roll-up people anticipated, it may be the one they’re going to get.
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“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle,” already a big hit in Japan, was the highest-grossing movie domestically, beating new films “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” “The Long Walk” and “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.”
The film, distributed by Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll, opened with a better-than-expected $70 million in ticket sales from the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates, making it the biggest anime opening ever. It’s also the highest-grossing domestic debut of the year so far for an animated film.
Its global weekend for Sony, which owns the Crunchyroll anime brand and streaming service, totaled $132.1 million, which includes 49 international markets.
Including grosses from Japan, the movie’s worldwide tally has surpassed $450 million, according to Comscore.
The success of “Demon Slayer,” part of a long-running popular franchise and not to be confused with Netflix’s hit “KPop Demon Hunters,” is a relief to theater owners at a time when other genres are struggling, including superheroes, comedies and original animation. It’s the latest evidence of anime’s growing global clout.
Comedian Nate Bargatze didn’t shortchange the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, nor did he kill the Emmys telecast’s ratings on Sunday night.
The 77th Emmy Awards ceremony from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles delivered an average of 7.42 million viewers on CBS, up 8% from last year’s audience for ABC.
Once among the most-watched live awards shows on television, the Emmy Awards audience declined dramatically over the last decade as most of the series celebrated no longer have the broad reach they did when traditional TV still dominated the culture, reports Stephen Battaglio.
But the audience level appears to have stabilized. Nielsen data shows that ratings for the Emmy Awards grew for the second consecutive year. The figure is the highest since 2021, when the telecast also aired on CBS.
HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” Apple TV+’s “The Studio” and Netflix’s “Adolescence” were big winners.
Film shoots
Finally …
Listen: The music of Le Tigre, just because it rocks. I just started the audiobook of Le Tigre and Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna’s memoir, “Rebel Girl.” Essential for punk rock fans.
Shares in Warner Bros Discovery surged nearly 30% in New York on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount Skydance was preparing to buy its rival.
Paramount Skydance’s stock also rose around 16% in daily trading.
The majority cash bid is reportedly for the entire company, including its movie studio and cable networks like HBO and CNN. Warner said late last year that it planned to split into two operating divisions: one focused on cable TV and the other on streaming and studios.
Paramount’s offer is allegedly backed by Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who briefly became the world’s richest person this week, overtaking tech tycoon Elon Musk. The billionaire’s son, David Ellison, runs Paramount Skydance.
The WSJ noted that a bid hasn’t yet been submitted and that plans could still fall apart.
Paramount Skydance’s market value was $19 billion (€16bn) as of Thursday’s close, while that of Warner Bros Discovery was roughly $40bn (€34bn).
Paramount and Warner Bros did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding reports of the acquisition.
If approved, a merger between the two firms would mark the biggest consolidation in Hollywood since Walt Disney bought the entertainment division of Fox Corp. in 2019.
Scale would allow the new company to compete with the likes of streaming giants Netflix and Disney as the industry is redefined by changes in traditional viewing habits.
Paramount Skydance merger
The report comes just weeks after the finalisation of a $8bn (€7bn) merger between movie giant Paramount and independent film studio Skydance Media.
This acquisition became particularly controversial after it was linked to a legal dispute over a CBS News interview.
In July, Paramount paid $16 million (€14mn) to settle a defamation case against US President Donald Trump. The Republican leader claimed that Paramount’s CBS News in November edited a “60 Minutes” news programme with then-vice president Kamala Harris in a way that was deliberately deceptive.
Paramount said in a statement that the settlement with Trump was “completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process”.
Even so, critics of the settlement lambasted it as a veiled bribe to appease Trump and allow the merger to go ahead.
Despite the payout, Paramount’s settlement did not include a statement of apology or regret.
Skydance did, however, declare it would end Paramount’s diversity programmes and appoint an ombudsman to review complaints of bias. Paramount also cancelled the left-leaning Late Show with Stephen Colbert ahead of the merger approval.
Critics viewed the moves as further attempts to win over President Trump, although Paramount denied that the Colbert show was cancelled for political motives.
Warner Bros. Discovery stock jumped more than 25% Thursday morning after a report that the Larry Ellison-backed Paramount was preparing a cash bid to buy the company that owns HBO, CNN and the Warner Bros. studio.
The Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners acquired Paramount a month ago, and has signaled that it would take bold steps as it tries to rebuild Paramount to its former glory. David Ellison, Larry’s 42-year-old son, serves as chairman and chief executive of Paramount.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount’s bid would be for the entire company, including its movie studio, streaming assets and cable networks. Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of spinning the cable channels into a separate company, a transaction that Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav said would be complete by next April.
Representatives of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
Warner Bros. Discovery stock closed at $12.54 on Wednesday. It had soared to around $16 a share in Thursday mid-day trading.
Paramount Skydance shares also climbed 7% to around $16.30.
Warner Bros. Discovery has joined a key copyright infringement case that could test the legal bounds of using artificial intelligence to create digital replicas of well-known characters.
The company on Thursday filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against AI company Midjourney Inc., alleging its image generator produces blatant rip-offs of Warner’s well-known and copyright-protected characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Scooby-Doo.
With the suit, Warner Bros. Discovery joins a legal fight brought in June by Walt Disney Co. and Comcast’s Universal Pictures. The Disney and Universal lawsuit marked the first salvo by major studios to elevate the legal struggle over AI-enabled intellectual property, calling it content theft.
The addition of Warner Bros. Discovery could boost Disney’s and Universal’s case. The three entertainment industry leaders control much of the most valuable intellectual property in Hollywood.
Disney’s stable includes Star Wars, Woody the Cowboy, Winnie the Pooh, the Simpsons and Disney princesses. Universal boasts such beasts as the Hulk, Shrek and the Minions.
Warner Bros. controls characters from DC Comics , Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera .
It sued on behalf of Warner Bros. , DC Comics, Turner Entertainment Co., Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., and the Cartoon Network. The company, which asked for a jury trial, is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction.
The companies allege the four-year-old San Francisco firm Midjourney, which has millions of paid subscribers, built its business off decades of hard work by Hollywood artists, writers and studios.
Midjourney, on its website, describes itself as “an independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species.” Midjourney offers its subscribers use of an image generator to create high-resolution digital depictions, including famous characters like Batman.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Universal allege that Midjourney trained its generative AI programs by using their copyrighted works. They contend that Midjourney-enabled creations are almost identical to their original copyrighted cartoons. Warner Bros.’ lawsuit included side-by-side renderings of its characters and Midjourney’s reproductions to illustrate the identical details, such as the color of Scooby-Doo’s collar and fur.
Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The heart of what we do is develop stories and characters to entertain our audiences, bringing to life the vision and passion of our creative partners,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement. “Midjourney is blatantly and purposefully infringing copyrighted works, and we filed this suit to protect our content, our partners, and our investments.”
Warner Bros. Discovery pointed to the value of its franchises, including its DC Comics movies. Films featuring the DC Extended Universe, which were released from 2018 through 2023, generated more than $7 billion in global ticket sales. Each film earned an average of $479 million, the lawsuit said.
“Only Warner Bros. Discovery has the right under U.S. Copyright law to build a business around reproducing, preparing derivative works, distributing, publicly displaying, and performing images and videos featuring its copyrighted characters,” the company said in its lawsuit.
Such exclusive rights and protections allow Warner Bros. Discovery and other studios to make massive investments in content, the lawsuit said, adding: “That is the cornerstone of the U.S. Copyright Act.”
Disney and Universal applauded Warner Bros. for joining their legal battle.
“Disney is committed to protecting our creators and innovators, and we’re pleased to be joined by Warner Bros. Discovery in the fight against Midjourney’s blatant copyright infringement,” Disney said in a statement.
Baker is also a prolific note-maker, something he puts down to his education.
At the time of his first stress fracture he was targeting a place to study biology at the University of Oxford and now he records analysis on opposition batters in a little book, along with plans and hopes for the future.
“I’ve just found it keeps me involved in the analysis stuff and then really remember it,” Baker says.
“It would be an absolute nightmare if you’re not really sure whether you’re meant to bowl wide or straight and then you pick the wrong one.
“You can’t really justify that to yourself at the end of the game.”
The Hundred means there is already a page in Baker’s notebook titled with the name of an Australian great.
Of the 12 balls Baker bowled to Steve Smith when Welsh Fire hosted Manchester Originals last Monday, three were hit for four and another three resulted in a false shot.
“It has been surreal, writing notes on Steve Smith thinking ‘am I actually going to be opening the bowling at him?'” Baker says.
This is the company Baker now keeps, however and, having rehabbed in Sydney after his most recent back injury, he has spent the past two winters in Australia.
Another will likely come this year with the young quick expected to be part of the Lions squad shadowing the Test team around the Ashes series.
From there anything can happen.
Far more unlikely names have been plucked by England to make a Test debut down under.
“I mean, that would be good fun, wouldn’t it?” Baker says.
“I’ll refer back to notes on any matters and Steve Smith is one of the red-ball GOATs [greatest of all-time] so I’d definitely be coming back to that analysis if I end up needing it.
“But let’s just worry about the next few games first. Let’s not get too far out of ourselves.
“We’ve got a Hundred to try and win and then South Africa series to try and win and then Ireland series try and win way before we think about any of all of that stuff.”
Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday unveiled the names of the proposed separate entities, post-breakup: Warner Bros. and Discovery Global.
When the corporate spin-off is complete some time next year, the venerable Burbank film and television studio properties, HBO, HBO Max streaming service and gaming properties will be part of a slimmed-down iteration called Warner Bros.
The cable networks, including TNT, CNN, HGTV and Animal Planet, and sports app Bleacher Report, will make up Discovery Global.
“We will proudly continue the more than century-long legacy of Warner Bros. through our commitment to bringing culture-defining stories, characters and entertainment to audiences around the world,” Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav said in a statement.
Zaslav, the longtime Discovery executive, is jumping to the Warner Bros. side, while his lieutenant, Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels, will lead Discovery Global.
The proposed corporate split is a recognition that the merger that created Warner Bros. Discovery three years ago was a misfire that eroded the value of some of the industry’s most premium brands. Zaslav championed the merger as a way to roll up several companies into one.
At the time, WarnerMedia — with its studios, HBO and Turner networks — was owned by AT&T, which was desperate to exit Hollywood after losing billions of dollars on acquisitions.
But Wall Street quickly soured on the consolidation that married nearly two dozen basic cable channels, including HGTV and Food Network, with the prestige properties of HBO and the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank.
AT&T’s sale to Discovery left Zaslav’s company struggling to tame more than $40 billion in debt. Investors also have a dim view of cable channels as the shift to streaming prompted a huge migration of viewers.
Senior executives joining Zaslav at Warner Bros. include: HBO Chairman Casey Bloys; Warner Bros. TV Group Chairman Channing Dungey; the film co-chairs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca; DC Studios leaders James Gunn and Peter Safran, Streaming and Gaming Chief Executive JB Perrette; Chief Operating Officer Bruce Campbell and Chief Communications Officer Robert Gibbs.
Discovery Global will include CNN Chairman Mark Thompson; TNT Sports Chairman Luis Silberwasser; international operations head Gerhard Zeiler; U.S. Ad Sales President Ryan Gould; and Chief Development Officer Anil Jhingan.
“As we prepare for the launch of Discovery Global, our enthusiasm for the opportunities ahead only grows thanks to our leading portfolio of beloved brands and programming, our worldwide footprint for adults, kids, and families, and now the experienced and talented leadership team,” Wiedenfels said.
Warner Bros. has started a search for a CFO as well as a chief people officer. Wiedenfels plans to hire a top communications and public affairs officer.
Keshia Knight Pulliam, who shared the screen with Malcolm-Jamal Warner on “The Cosby Show,” highlighted the Emmy-nominated actor’s musical talents as she broke her silence on his death.
Pulliam on Sunday shared an Instagram video of Warner playing the bass at Atlanta’s City Winery. She shared the video of Warner, best known for his portrayal of clean-cut Theodore Huxtable, a week after he drowned while swimming in the Caribbean off Costa Rica. He was 54.
“A week ago I lost my big brother but I gained an angel,” Pulliam captioned her video. She played Rudy Huxtable, the youngest of the TV family’s children.
“I love you… I miss you,” she added, before referencing the other Huxtable children. “We got our girls.”
“House of Payne” star Pulliam, 46, is the latest “Cosby Show” star to mourn Warner. As news of the actor-musician’s death spread last week, co-stars including Bill Cosby, Geoffrey Owens and Raven-Symoné paid tribute. Cosby told CBS News last week he and co-star Phylicia Rashad were “embracing each other over the phone” when they learned of Warner’s death.
“He was never afraid to go to his room and study. He knew his lines and that he was quite comfortable even with the growing pains of a being a teenager,” Cosby said of Warner.
Owens, who appeared as Warner’s on-screen brother-in-law, Elvin Tibideaux, said in a statement shared with Deadline that his co-star’s death had left him speechless. “Malcolm was a lovely man; a sweet and sensitive soul. I respected him for many reasons, including the fact that he genuinely loved the act of creation,” he said.
Warner, also a TV director and a Grammy-winning musician, was on vacation with his family at the time of his death. He was swimming when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.
The Red Cross in Costa Rica confirmed to The Times last week that its first responders also tended to another man in the same drowning incident that claimed Warner’s life. The patient, whose identity was not disclosed, survived. First responders found Warner without vital signs, and he was taken to the morgue.
As news of his death spread last week, his Hollywood peers, including Morris Chestnut, Tracee Ellis Ross, Viola Davis and Niecy Nash also paid tribute on social media. Beyoncé honored the actor, briefly updating her website to include a tribute to the TV star.
Pulliam also thanked fans on Sunday for their support as she mourned. “Thank you for every text, call and all the love that you have sent my way,” she said in an Instagram story. “I’ve just needed a moment.”
City Winery in Atlanta, the venue from Pulliam’s video, will host an event in Warner’s honor on Wednesday. “This tribute is our communal offering to say: Thank you. For the way he gave, for the work he created, for the bridges he built between TV, poetry, music, and love,” says the event website. According to the site, all profits will go to Warner’s family. He is survived by his wife and daughter.
There were three television characters who really mattered to me as a kid: Michael, Leroy and Theo.
In elementary school, “Good Times” was the television show that most closely resembled my family. And seeing reruns of Ralph David Carter’s portrayal of a precocious young boy learning what it means to be poor, gifted and Black is what moved his Michael from fiction to family for me.
By middle school, I was no longer wearing cornrows like Gene Anthony Ray, but I tried everything else to be like his character Leroy from the television show “Fame.” For some of my classmates, the performing arts were a fun way to express themselves, and the show was inspirational. For me, it was my way out of the hood, and Leroy was the blueprint. Through the Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy, I was able to take professional dance lessons for free and ultimately earned a dance scholarship for college.
But it wasn’t a linear journey. Despite being gifted, I struggled academically and required summer classes to graduate from high school. That’s why I connected with Theo, whose challenges in the classroom were one of the running jokes on “The Cosby Show.” The family never gave up on him, and more importantly, he didn’t stop trying.
Through the jokes about his intelligence, the coming-of-age miscues (and the dyslexia diagnosis), the storylines of Theo — like those of Leroy and Michael — often reflected struggles I foolishly thought no one else was experiencing when I was growing up. It is only through distance and time are we able to see moments like those more clearly. In retrospect, the three of them were like knots I held onto on a rope I had no idea I was climbing.
This is why the Black community’s response to the death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner this week isn’t solely rooted in nostalgia but also in gratitude. We recognize the burden he’s been carrying, so that others could climb.
When “The Cosby Show” debuted in 1984, there were no other examples of a successful two-parent Black family on air. We were on television but often trauma and struggle — not love and support — were at the center of the narratives. So even though Black women had been earning law degrees since the 1800s — beginning with Charlotte E. Ray in 1872 — and Black men were becoming doctors before that, the initial response from critics was that the show’s premise of a doctor-and-lawyer Black couple was not authentically Black.
That narrow-minded worldview continued to hang over Hollywood despite the show’s success. In 1992, after nearly 10 years of “The Cosby Show” being No. 1 — and after the success of “Beverly Hills Cop II” and “Coming to America” — the Eddie Murphy-led project “Boomerang” was panned as unrealistic because the main characters were all Black and successful. The great Murphy took on the Los Angeles Times directly in a letter for its critique on what Black excellence should look like.
However, Black characters like Michael, Leroy and Theo had been taking on the media since the racist film “The Birth of a Nation” painted all of us as threats in 1915. It could not have been easy for Warner, being the face of so much for so many at an age when a person is trying to figure out who he is. And because he was able to do so with such grace, Warner’s Theo defined Blackness simply by being what the world said we were not. This sentiment is embodied in his last interview, when he answered the question of his legacy by saying: “I will be able to leave this Earth knowing and people knowing that I was a good person.”
In the end, that is ultimately what made his character, along with Leroy and Michael, so important to the Black community. It wasn’t the economic circumstances or family structure of the sitcoms that they all had in common. It was their refusal to allow the ugliness of this world to tear them down. To change their hearts or turn their light into darkness. They maintained their humanity and in the process gave so many of us a foothold to keep climbing higher.
The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.
Ideas expressed in the piece
The author argues Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s role as Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” provided representation and relatability for Black youth struggling with self-identity, academic challenges, and systemic biases[1][2][4].
Warner’s portrayal of Theo, a character navigating classroom struggles and dyslexia, mirrored real-life experiences of many Black children who saw limited depictions of airborne excellence in media[1][3][4].
The author emphasizes the cultural significance of The Cosby Show as one of the first mainstream sitcoms to depict a successful, intact Black family amid Hollywood’s narrow, often regressive portrayals of African Americans[1][4].
Warner’s death sparked gratitude from Black communities for his role in normalizing Blackness as multifaceted and resilient against systemic adversity[1][2][4].
Copied states: sopping, the author highlights Warner’s grace in enduring pressure to represent Black excellence, noting the burden he carried for marginalized audiences seeking validation in media[1][4].
Different views on the topic
No contrasting perspectives were identified in the provided sources. The article and supporting materials exclusively focus on eulogizing Warner’s legacy without presenting alternative viewpoints.
New details about the circumstances of “Cosby Show” star Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death have emerged.
The Red Cross in Costa Rica confirmed to The Times on Wednesday that its first responders also tended to another man in the same drowning incident that claimed Warner’s life on Sunday. The patient, whose identity was not disclosed, survived the drowning.
Costa Rican Red Cross said in a statement that it received an emergency report on Sunday at 2:10 p.m. of a “water-related incident” at Playa Grande, Cahuita, Limón, involving two men who required emergency treatment. Three ambulances arrived at the beach where Red Cross personnel attended to the two men. They performed CPR and revived the unidentified swimmer. He was transported to a nearby clinic in “critical condition,” the statement said.
First responders also performed CPR on Warner, but to no avail. “He was unfortunately declared deceased at the scene,” the statement said. The Costa Rican Red Cross also told People that “two people were dragged by a water current at the beach,” and they were out of the water when paramedics arrived.
The Red Cross statement confirms details previously shared by Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department, which told the Associated Press on Monday that first responders found Warner without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue. Warner was on vacation with his family. He was 54.
Warner, an Emmy-nominated actor, was best known for starring as Theo Huxtable for eight seasons on “The Cosby Show.” His numerous TV credits also include “The Resident,” “Malcolm & Eddie,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “9-1-1” and “Suits.” He was a director for shows “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Kenan & Kel,” among others, and a Grammy-winning musician.
As news of his death spread Monday, Warner’s Hollywood peers, including Morris Chestnut, Tracee Ellis Ross, Viola Davis and Niecy Nash paid tribute on social media. Beyoncé also honored the actor, updating her website to include a tribute to the TV star.
“Rest in power, Malcolm-Jamal Warner,” reads the tribute, which features a black-and-white photo of the actor in his youth. “Thanks for being a big part of our shared television history. You will be missed.”
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the Emmy-nominated actor who starred as Theo Huxtable for eight seasons on “The Cosby Show,” has died, The Times has confirmed. He was 54.
Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department told the Associated Press on Monday that Warner drowned Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.
First responders from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue. Warner was on vacation with his family.
Representatives for Warner declined to comment immediately Monday, but Warner’s friends and colleagues poured out their thoughts on social media.
“I love you, Malcolm,” wrote Tracee Ellis Ross, who co-starred as Warner’s wife on 29 episodes of “Reed Between the Lines.” “First I met you as Theo with the rest of the world then you were my first TV husband. My heart is so so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place. Sending so much love to your family. I’m so sorry for this unimaginable loss.”
Morris Chestnut, who worked with Warner on “The Resident,” was “heartbroken” to hear the news.
“He brought so much depth, warmth, and wisdom to every scene and every conversation,” Chestnut wrote. “One of the nicest in the business. Rest easy, brother. Your legacy lives on.”
“The JOY in your voice as you spoke about your daughter the last time we talked is all I can think about in this moment … Thank You for being a beautiful light. A Masterclass on the phrase ‘a class act.’ Well done,” wrote singer-songwriter Ledisi, who worked with Warner in music and on TV.
“Luke Cage” actor Mike Colter posted an all-smiles photo of himself and Warner that was taken when the two ran into each other about a year ago. They first connected during the pandemic lockdown, he said.
“I was fascinated by his depth and concern for his fellow man. His compassion for his people. His musical gifts and expressions in spoken word,” Colter wrote. “Yes of course I had watched him as I grew up on the Cosby Show but he had grown into so much more as an [artist] and a man. A father.
“I took this photo as his mother sat across from us. I complimented her on what a great job she had done with her son in this industry. He [turned] out so well,” Colter continued. “My heart goes out to her. I never heard a harsh word [spoken] about him. His legacy will live on. I’m so sorry for this loss to his family and friends. i’m in shock to be honest.”
Holly Robinson Peete said she met Warner in the 1980s when her father was a writer-producer on “The Cosby Show.” The two stayed friends over the years.
“I’m struggling to process this,” she wrote. “Malcolm was so deeply loved, respected, and a true icon of television. … He was always gracious, kind, funny and gave the absolute best hugs. I am sending my deepest condolences to his mom, Pamela and his family… We aren’t ready to say goodbye, Malcolm — but you lived with purpose, character, presence, and grace. Rest well, my friend. Your light lives on.”
“I actually am speechless!!!!! No words!,” Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis wrote. “Theo was OUR son, OUR brother, OUR friend… He was absolutely so familiar, and we rejoiced at how TV got it right!! But… Malcolm got it right… and now… we reveled in your life and are gutted by this loss.”
Niecy Nash said she had just spoken to Warner. “You were giving me my flowers for my work in @grotesqueriefx and we talked about how happy we both were in our marriages,” she wrote. “ Damn friend … You were cornerstone of The Cosby Show. We all loved Theo! Never to be forgotten. You will be missed. Rest Easy.”
Questlove said he saw himself in Theo Huxtable: being bad at football, wanting clothes he couldn’t afford, hiding edgy things from the parents.
“If you looked like me coming of age in the 80s, Malcom-as-Theo was a gps/lighthouse of navigating safety to adulthood. For those of us that didnt have ‘examples’ or ‘safe environments’ — I would like to think for anyone of age we used this entire show —and its offspring as life blueprints,” the music producer and drummer wrote.
In addition to acting on “The Cosby Show,” Warner directed five episodes over the final three years of the show. He was behind the camera for a half-dozen installments of “All That” and also directed episodes of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “The Resident,” “Kenan & Kel” and “Reed Between the Lines.”
“Part of the reason I even got into directing is because I realized as an actor you really only have so much creative control over whatever project you’re acting in,” Warner told The Times in 1991. “I felt that, as a director, I would at least have more of a voice.”
He continued, saying, “Directing, as is acting and writing, is an interpretation. And I feel that I have a pretty good sense of how to tell a story. And I think that my interpretation of things is pretty, pretty good.”
Born Aug. 18, 1970, in Jersey City, N.J., Warner was named after activist Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. He caught the performing bug by the time he was 9 and wound up attending Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School, which counts him among its “distinguished alumni.”
His parents divorced when he was 3 and he was raised primarily by his mother, Pamela, who served as his manager in the early days of his career.
“I think probably the biggest influence — and I talk about this all the time, and I will probably continue to talk about this until my dying day — my mother. I think she really made the most impact on me,” he said.
Working on “The Cosby Show” in New York instead of Hollywood was another formative experience for him when the sitcom was the most popular thing on TV.
“There weren’t really many other shows shooting in New York. We all had to grow up with friends who were not in the business,” Warner told People in 2024. “And when you grow up in New York, there’s a different exposure to reality than when you grow up on television in Hollywood.”
After getting an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in 1986, for his work on “Cosby,” Warner went on to amass dozens of TV credits. They include four seasons as the lead actor on “Malcolm & Eddie” — he directed 17 episodes on that UPN show — and six seasons as A.J. Austin on “The Resident.”
Other appearances included work on “Sons of Anarchy,” “Major Crimes,” “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” and “Suits.”
Warner also won a Grammy for traditional R&B performance in 2015 for the song “Jesus Children” and was nominated for spoken word poetry album in 2023.
His band Miles Long incorporated spoken word and funk. The band released “The Miles Long Mixtape” in 2004 and “Love & Other Social Issues” in 2007. “Selfless” dropped in 2015 and “Hiding in Plain View” came out in 2022.
“I’ve been writing all my life and playing bass came later on, when I was about 26,” Warner told Billboard in 2015. “What I recognized with poetry and music [is] that I had a different voice — there were things I wanted to express that I could not as an actor or even as a director. It was another avenue of expression that my soul needs.”
Of course, he was asked for his thoughts on co-star Bill Cosby when Cosby was accused of rape in 2015.
“He’s one of my mentors, and he’s been very influential and played a big role in my life as a friend and mentor,” Warner told Billboard. “Just as it’s painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it’s just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.”
Warner was very happy in his own marriage, though he kept his wife and daughter’s identities private.
“When people say, when you know, you know. That’s what this feeling is,” he said on the “Hot & Bothered” podcast in May. “We’ve been together almost 10 years. We’ve never had a fight, an argument, a raised voice or a harsh word. Not that we’ve always agreed. We’re just at a point where we have a way of communicating.”
After playing clean-cut Theodore Huxtable, Warner was looking for other paths when he talked to The Times in 1987.
“In my post-’Cosby’ life, as I call it, I don’t want to be known as just the kind of guy who can play a Theo Huxtable-type character,” Warner said. “I want to be known as being able to do more things, being able to stretch. For me that was the most important thing.”
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, an actor best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died.
Warner, who was 54, drowned at the weekend while on holiday in Costa Rica, local authorities said.
Warner appears to have been dragged out to sea by a swift ocean current while swimming at Playa Grande around 14:00 (20:00 GMT) local time on Sunday in Cocles, a town in the province of Limón, Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency said.
Warner played the son of Bill Cosby on the hugely popular US sitcom from 1984-1992. Tributes swiftly poured in from celebrities, including Questlove, Jennifer Hudson, Taraji P Henson, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Magic Johnson.
Authorities said bystanders rescued Warner and brought him to shore, where the Costa Rican Red Cross tried to treat him, but he was declared dead at the scene.
He is survived by his wife and daughter.
Warner was Emmy-nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a comedy series for his work on The Cosby Show in 1986.
He was handpicked for his breakout role by Cosby on the final day of a nationwide audition.
“I was literally the last person they saw,” he recalled in a 2023 interview.
The Cosby Show ranked as the number one TV show for five seasons from 1985-90. It portrayed a cosy middle-class family – a relatively rare depiction at the time of black Americans on television.
“When the show first came out, there were white people and black people talking about [how] the Huxtables don’t really exist, black people don’t really live like that,” Warner said in a 2013 interview.
“Meanwhile, we were getting tens of thousands of fan letters from people saying, ‘Thank you so much for this show.'”
After The Cosby Show, Warner appeared in several other television programmes including Malcom & Eddie, alongside comedian Eddie Griffin.
Griffin paid respects to him on social media after his death, writing “R.I.P. King” and “My big little brother”.
Warner had guest appearances on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Sesame Street. More recently, he played AJ Austin, a cardio-thoracic surgeon on the medical drama series The Resident.
Warner also won a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2015, alongside Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway for their cover of Stevie Wonder’s song Jesus Children of America.
His spoken word album “Hiding In Plain View” garnered him another Grammy nomination in 2023.
Last year, he started a podcast – “Not All Hood” – which discussed mental health in the black community.
Former co-stars and fans has been posting their tributes to him online.
Basketball star Magic Johnson, who appeared in an AIDS awareness video directed by Warner, wrote that he and his wife were “both super fans of the hit Cosby Show and continued to follow his career” over the years.
“Every time I ran into Malcolm, we would have deep and fun conversations about basketball, life, and business. He will truly be missed,” Johnson wrote.
Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt called him “a gentleman” and “an incredible talent”.
Actress Vivica A Fox posted that she was stunned and saddened by his sudden death, writing: “Thanks for ya gifts, king.”
Tracee Ellis Ross, who starred with Warner on Reed Between the Lines, also mourned him, writing: “My heart is so so sad.
“What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place.
“Sending so much love to your family. I’m so sorry for this unimaginable loss.”
Actress Taraji P Henson posted: “Malcolm, we grew up with you. Thank you for the art, the wisdom, the grace you gave us!!!!!
“You left the world better than you found it. Rest easy, king!!!! Your legacy lives far beyond the screen.”
Actress Niecy Nash posted that she had recently spoken to Warner.
“We talked about how happy we both were in our marriages. Damn friend. You were cornerstone of The Cosby Show.
“We all loved Theo! Never to be forgotten. You will be missed. Rest Easy.”
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock also praised Warner, writing in a post: “For me and so many in my generation, Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a part of our childhood, a brother whose character ‘Theo’ felt like one of my own.
“May God grant peace to his soul, strength and grace to his grieving family.”
When Bill Cosby revolutionized television during the mid-1980s with “The Cosby Show,” the fictional Huxtables, the wealthy Black family at the center of the sitcom, were often referred to as “America’s family,” and riding the wave of that pop culture phenomenon was Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
The actor, who died Sunday at 54 in Costa Rica, charmed viewers of the NBC sitcom with his portrayal of Theodore “Theo” Huxtable, the middle child and only son of Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable. Theo was based on Bill Cosby’s son, Ennis William Cosby, who was a constant source of material in his comedy routines and the inspiration for many of the storylines involving Theo on the show. (And like Theo, Ennis, who died in 1997, was Cosby’s only son.)
The series would be the most notable highlight of his career, earning him an Emmy nomination in 1986 for supporting comedy actor. After “The Cosby Show,” Warner continued to work on various television series, including “The Resident” and “9-1-1.” He also dabbled in music and hosted a podcast exploring positives in Black culture titled “Not All Hood.”
But none of those endeavors matched the success of his “Cosby Show” profile.
The Huxtable children, played by Warner, Sabrina LeBeauf, Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe and Keshia Knight Pulliam, were a key element of the series. As played by Warner, Theo was an engaging, fun-loving teen who also got into a variety of scrapes in the Huxtable household. He also struggled as a student.
The cast of “The Cosby Show,” clockwise from top left: Tempestt Bledsoe, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Lisa Bonet, Phylicia Rashad, Keshia Knight Pulliam and Bill Cosby.
(NBC/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
And while he would often frustrate his parents, the affection they had for him was palpable. The Huxtables were a family bonded by humor and love, as Dr. Huxtable and his wife, Clair (Phylicia Rashad), a lawyer, counseled their children how to be better people. Their interactions attracted millions of viewers each week.
In a 1992 New York Times interview, Cosby spoke of Ennis’ problems at school: “It bothered me that Ennis was not doing his schoolwork. I sat him down and said, ‘We’re going to talk, and I want you to say whatever is on your mind.’”
The dialogue became the basis for an episode in which Theo comes home with lackluster grades, explaining to his father that he was overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed.
Cosby’s family later learned when Ennis graduated from college that he was dyslexic. The discovery inspired the final episode of the series, in which Theo overcomes dyslexia and graduates from college. (Cliff Huxtable can’t get enough seats for the graduation ceremony.)
When “The Cosby Show” ended in 1992, some of the actors playing the Huxtable children had varying degrees of success. Bonet starred for one season on the “Cosby Show” spinoff, “A Different World,” and co-starred in the film “Angel Heart.” Bledsoe hosted a daytime talk show. Pulliam currently co-stars on “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.”
Warner continued to work, finding some steady roles and making guest appearances on various shows over the course of his career.
He starred in 1992’s “Here and Now” on NBC as a psychology graduate student who helps run an inner-city Manhattan youth center. The comedy was canceled after one season.
His most successful venture was “Malcolm & Eddie,” which featured him and comedian Eddie Griffin as bar owners. That UPN comedy ended in 2000 after four seasons.
One of his last leading roles was in BET’s short-lived 2011 comedy “Reed Between the Lines,” in which he played an English teacher married to a psychologist (Tracee Ellis Ross).
Warner said in a Times interview that the show reflected his desire to continue the positive family values at the core of “The Cosby Show.”
“We were clear that there had not been a show like ‘Cosby’ since ‘Cosby,’” Warner said. “We are in no way looking to re-create that show, but we did want to re-create that universality and positive family values that ‘Cosby’ represented. Neither Tracee or I were interested in a ‘black show.’ We are telling family stories as opposed to black stories.”
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played Theodore Huxtable on the sitcom the Cosby Show, and later appeared on TV shows such as The Resident, has reportedly died, aged 54
