Yahoo Finance Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) HBO Reveals The Last of Us Details
Warner Bros Discovery WBD has been ramping up the marketing for HBO's The Last of Us in the past weeks as its Jan 15 premiere approaches fast and a new update about Episode 1's runtime may have further boosted the anticipation for its debut.
Clocking in at an impressive 1 hour and 25 minutes, this action-packed opening installment is sure to captivate both old and new fans alike. The Last of Us is set in 2033, 20 years after the world’s population has been decimated by a fungal infestation of the brain that initially makes its victims violently insane and feral.
It will feature Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel Miller and Ellie Williams who are shown as the only two survivors in a post-apocalyptic America run by wicked monsters and zombies which are named as clickers.
While plot details are expected to mirror the iconic Playstation game, its first trailer already revealed that some storylines will be expanded alongside key surprising additions.
On the business side, The Last of Us is being produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment in conjunction with PlayStation Productions. Sony Pictures Entertainment’s shows include Breaking Bad, The Boys, and Seinfeld. As for the relatively new PlayStation Productions, The Last of Us is their first TV series and only second announced production after the movie based on Naughty Dog’s Uncharted games.
HBO also confirmed that The Last of Us would have a nine-episode first season that covers Part 1 of the hit video game. The Last of Us Episode 1 will premiere on HBO on Sunday, Jan 15, at 9:00 pm ET.
The television network has also revealed that the series will be accompanied by a companion podcast. The podcast will be hosted by Troy Baker who is the original voice actor for Joel in The Last of Us video game.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Price and Consensus
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WBD Takes Tough Decisions to Create a Sound Business
Ever since the merger of Warner Media and Discovery, Warner Bros. Discovery, which currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), is facing heavy debt and losses. In the third quarter, the company incurred an operating loss of $2.19 billion compared to an operating income of $329 million in the year-ago quarter.
It recently laid off several executives to reorganize its managing hierarchy to better understand its combined business and enhance management. The Warner Bros. Discovery Global Brands and Experiences division also integrated the global leadership for its consumer products business in Canada and the United States into one North American team, along with major international regions being managed together.
The company has been cutting costs by cancelling high-budget movies with an intent of shifting focus away from shared-universe films toward its commercially successful stand-alone films. For this, it canceled projects like the new Batgirl movie, Wonder Woman 3 and Man of Steel 2, while The Batman universe and Joker: Folie a Deux are moving forward.
As of Jan 31, the Jurassic Park trilogy will no longer be part of HBO Max’s library. This means that Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III will all be removed from the service on that date. Other notable removals included Infinity Train, Close Enough, Uncle Grandpa, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
The company's solid releases for the next year include Shazam: Fury of the Gods (Mar 17), The Flash (Jun 16) and Aquaman (Dec 25). These movies are expected to gain significant appreciation from viewers and bolster the company’s revenues.
HBO Max is coming back to Amazon’s AMZN Prime Video in the United States. Prime customers can sign up for HBO Max for $14.99 per month and subscribers will have access to 15,000 hours of curated premium content from the Warner Bros. Discovery family of networks.
However, high inflation, rising interest rates, high capital costs, a soaring U.S. dollar and an anticipated recession encouraged advertisers to pull ad budgets, which is expected to impact top-line growth in the near term.
Paramount Global’s PARA CEO Robert Bakish gave a bleak near-took outlook, suggesting that ad revenues are expected to decline by a larger percentage in the fiscal fourth quarter, following a 2% decline in third-quarter fiscal 2022.
Netflix NFLX and Disney are set to release their ad-tier subscription tiers in their attempt to boost declining subscriber growth and attract ad revenues.
Netflix added 2.41 million new paid subscribers in third-quarter fiscal 2022 and expects to add 4.5 million paid members in the next quarter with a 6% year-over-year increase in its average revenue per member.
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