Apple loses $500 million bidding war for J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot

Posted:
in General Discussion edited June 2019
J.J. Abrams production company Bad Robot is finalizing a near $500 million partnership with WarnerMedia, with other suitors Disney, Sony, and Apple losing out.




J.J. Abrams, creator of many popular series such as Lost, Alias, and Westworld, and director of the 2009 Star Trek reboot, is set to start a new partnership with WarnerMedia to the tune of nearly $500 million. Many companies, including Apple, had entered a bidding war hoping to score exclusivity with the production company.

The Hollywood Reporter says WarnerMedia has emerged the victor and is in the process of finalizing the contract. Abrams has worked closely with WarnerMedia's daughter company, HBO, on several projects, including Westworld. John Stankey, WarnerMedia's CEO, had sought to keep Bad Robot in-house.

Under the deal, Bad Robot will continue to create new projects for WarnerMedia, including WarnerMedia's forthcoming streaming video on demand service. The deal covers movies, television shows, video games, consumer products, and digital content. It is not currently clear how many years the new agreement would be for, or if the contract requires complete exclusivity.

The race to secure notable production companies is heating up as more companies begin to release their own streaming services. Apple has been in the process of acquiring series for their new streaming service. This includes See, and For All Mankind.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 66
    How's HBO "losing out"? Given that they're part of Warner?
    1STnTENDERBITSchemengin1watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 66
    As an Apple shareholder, this is the best news I've heard in a long time. JJ is hardly box office gold. 
    macplusplusmacseekerSanctum1972hmurchison
  • Reply 3 of 66
    doctwelve said:
    ...... JJ is hardly box office gold. 
    Star Trek. Star Wars. Are you sure?
    chemengin1JWSCsphericrandominternetpersonFileMakerFellerfastasleepwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 66
    the monk said:
    doctwelve said:
    ...... JJ is hardly box office gold. 
    Star Trek. Star Wars. Are you sure?
    Yeah, pretty sure. Established franchises. His Mission Impossible was the lowest box office of the series. Lost did well but he's had a lot of misses: Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest. I think he's over-rated. Not worth $500 million. I'd love to see Apple entice someone like Luc Besson instead. 
    hodarmacplusplusbloggerblogmacseekerYvLyStrangeDaysmobirdhmurchison
  • Reply 5 of 66
    jimh2jimh2 Posts: 611member
    It is hit or miss with Hollywood. No one knows what will work until all of the money has already been spent.
    doctwelvemwhitelkruppradarthekatCarnagehmurchisonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 66
    hodarhodar Posts: 357member
    Bad Robot is certainly a company with value, and they have delivered in the past.

    But, everything of financial worth can be assessed at a definitive value in dollars.  In this case, it was a value less than $500 Million; it's not like Apple couldn't afford to pay much more.  Apple merely decided that Bad Robot wasn't worth the price they were demanding.
    larryjwdoctwelvepscooter631STnTENDERBITSradarthekatrazorpitStrangeDaysRayz2016randominternetpersonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 66
    doctwelve said:
    the monk said:
    doctwelve said:
    ...... JJ is hardly box office gold. 
    Star Trek. Star Wars. Are you sure?
    Yeah, pretty sure. Established franchises. His Mission Impossible was the lowest box office of the series. Lost did well but he's had a lot of misses: Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest. I think he's over-rated. Not worth $500 million. I'd love to see Apple entice someone like Luc Besson instead. 
     You want to put JJ Abrams accomplishments up against Luc Besson.  Luc Besson?  I like Luc's portfolio as much as the next guy, but c'mon man.  There's no comparison.  Abrams is the definition of mainstream Hollywood, and Apple is rumored to desire just that, mainstream.  Nothing controversial.  Looking at your list of misses... Alcatraz is the only miss.  Fringe and Person of Interest were both 5 season shows.

    Also Luc's films don't exactly fit into Apple's rumored style of film making.  Seriously, do you see Apple coming out with an Ong Bak, Le Femme Nikita, The Transporter and Taken series of films, or the upcoming Anna?  Naaaaaah.
    razorpitsweetheart777chemengin1kuraiJWSCpscooter63minicoffeerandominternetpersonfastasleepwatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 66
    hodar said:
    Bad Robot is certainly a company with value, and they have delivered in the past.

    But, everything of financial worth can be assessed at a definitive value in dollars.  In this case, it was a value less than $500 Million; it's not like Apple couldn't afford to pay much more.  Apple merely decided that Bad Robot wasn't worth the price they were demanding.
    This is the right answer.  Apple probably set a valuation of Bad Robot at X.  When the bidding got beyond X, Apple dropped out of the race.  This is smart.  A while ago, I said in a thread that Apple's huge money pile would have a net result of driving up the cost of content and content creators.  I have a feeling that when Apple enters the process, price goes up immediately... cuz big pile-o-cash.   Apple's going to have to remained disciplined and only splurge when they think it's absolutely necessary.  Bad Robot has some good properties but I personally don't think Bad Robot meets the threshold for "necessary".  Disney properties would have met that threshold, but not Bad Robot.  
    randominternetpersonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 66
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    And let us not forget who owns WarnerMedia. That’s right, the evil AT&T empire that many here like to trash constantly. Get ready for hefty increases in your data plans to pay for the acquisition of Bad Robot. Bwaah ha ha ha ha ha, the Death Star has you by the gonads.
    adamcrazorpitFileMakerFellerbuzdotswatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 66
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    Apple is a premium brand, Abrams is a middlebrow schlock merchant, albeit a successful one. Prefer Apple pursue BBC and Masterpiece Theatre talent rather than visual junk food. 
    macplusplusmacseekerpscooter63blurpbleepbloop
  • Reply 11 of 66
    Apple is a premium brand, Abrams is a middlebrow schlock merchant, albeit a successful one. Prefer Apple pursue BBC and Masterpiece Theatre talent rather than visual junk food. 
    Absolutely, Apple should build on the successes of the premium strands Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke. 
    razorpitdjames4242entropysddawson100FileMakerFeller
  • Reply 12 of 66
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    doctwelve said:
    the monk said:
    doctwelve said:
    ...... JJ is hardly box office gold. 
    Star Trek. Star Wars. Are you sure?
    Yeah, pretty sure. Established franchises. His Mission Impossible was the lowest box office of the series. Lost did well but he's had a lot of misses: Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest. I think he's over-rated. Not worth $500 million. I'd love to see Apple entice someone like Luc Besson instead. 
     You want to put JJ Abrams accomplishments up against Luc Besson.  Luc Besson?  I like Luc's portfolio as much as the next guy, but c'mon man.  There's no comparison.  Abrams is the definition of mainstream Hollywood, and Apple is rumored to desire just that, mainstream.  Nothing controversial.  Looking at your list of misses... Alcatraz is the only miss.  Fringe and Person of Interest were both 5 season shows.

    Also Luc's films don't exactly fit into Apple's rumored style of film making.  Seriously, do you see Apple coming out with an Ong Bak, Le Femme Nikita, The Transporter and Taken series of films, or the upcoming Anna?  Naaaaaah.
    Also, Luc Besson doesn't exactly fit into Apple.

    JWSC
  • Reply 13 of 66
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    Are the "Sit Ubu Sit" people still around?  :D
    sphericStrangeDaysrandominternetperson
  • Reply 14 of 66
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    doctwelve said:
    the monk said:
    doctwelve said:
    ...... JJ is hardly box office gold. 
    Star Trek. Star Wars. Are you sure?
    Yeah, pretty sure. Established franchises. His Mission Impossible was the lowest box office of the series. Lost did well but he's had a lot of misses: Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest. I think he's over-rated. Not worth $500 million. I'd love to see Apple entice someone like Luc Besson instead. 
    Not to mention Apple didn't have to lose it was a David Vs Goliath situation!  Apple clearly had a limit on what they felt it was worth.
    JWSCwatto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 66
    aknabiaknabi Posts: 211member
    the monk said:
    doctwelve said:
    ...... JJ is hardly box office gold. 
    Star Trek. Star Wars. Are you sure?
    If he had signed with Apple he would have been the king of cinema... since he didn't he's not that hot...

    Logic for fanboys 101
    chemengin1
  • Reply 16 of 66
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    aknabi said:
    the monk said:
    doctwelve said:
    ...... JJ is hardly box office gold. 
    Star Trek. Star Wars. Are you sure?
    If he had signed with Apple he would have been the king of cinema... since he didn't he's not that hot...

    Logic for fanboys 101
    Bitter much? Why bother reading on this blog?
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 17 of 66
    Abrams didn't create the Westworld television series -- it's completely wrong to call him a "creator" of that show. He's an executive producer, but Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are the creative forces driving it.
    StrangeDaysfastasleep
  • Reply 18 of 66
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    razorpit said:
    Are the "Sit Ubu Sit" people still around?  :D
    Good dog.
    StrangeDaysfastasleep
  • Reply 19 of 66
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    The oblique reference to "For All Mankind" reminds me just how uncomfortable the teaser trailer at WWDC made me. While yes, art in general should have an element of uncomfortableness to motivate a viewer, I found the premise completely unbelievable. I think the idea is that while the USA lost the race to the moon, it sparked a continuing competition of space exploration. I find that completely and utterly unbelievable. Apollo and the "space race" was born and depended completely on political forces, and the US, even in that point of history, is a society completely incapable of anything more. And I say this because I can watch shows with dragons and people back from the dead; and lifelike robots that act out a fantasy land for wealthy visitors. I find that all comparatively believable. The US going into space for anything other than stroking its ego, then discovering it costs money? Humpf. Skippit. 

    Yes, sorry for the manifesto. 
    FileMakerFeller
  • Reply 20 of 66
    gutengelgutengel Posts: 363member
    Good that Apple didn't waste money on this overrated guy. He just good at making good looking movies, storytelling skills not so much.
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