Sean McAnulty (00:34):
Welcome to the Ankler Podcast. This is Sean McNulty from The Wakeup newsletter at The Ankler here in New York City on Friday, February 23rd. You have joined me Elaine Lu In Los Angeles, Richard RushfieldAnd Peter Keifer He will join us shortly. Despite Ellen, the Beatles are finally getting their story told after all these years. are you excited?
Elaine Lu (00:54):
Oh my God, the greatest story ever told, isn't it? I can't wait to see him in what? Four different facilities? What's the deal here?
Sean McAnulty (01:01):
Yes. So Sony picked up a project from Sam Mendesa wonderful director who is making four films about the Beatles, one for each film. Pete Best He should go somewhere else. But yeah, in 2027, we've got three years here, Ellen, before they hit theaters. They will all hit theaters in the same year. Not sure what the plan is yet, but yeah.
Elaine Lu (01:18):
2027. But will the time come by then, Sean?
Sean McAnulty (01:21):
I don't know if kids will care about them in 2027, Eileen, but yeah, that's a good question. The timeout may expire. So anyway, we'll see. But before we get started, just a reminder, you can catch the crew of The Ankler on Los Angeles' #1 NPR station and Southern California Public Radio's flagship station 89.3 LAist every Thursday all day as part of their Thursday entertainment programming during Morning Edition, AirTalk, and All Things Considered . Ellen and I were there yesterday, so it's always fun to do that. And just a reminder, you can reach Richard, Ellen, and me here on the podcast anytime at podcasts@theankler.com. If you listen on Apple Podcasts, want to leave a review, or wherever you listen, we'd appreciate that too. It's always great if you enjoy the podcast and help us out too.
(02:09):
Well, this week Peter is giving us a little tour of the restoration Bob Evans'The old estate in Beverly Hills that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav He pledges. And we'll move on to Richard's Field Guide to Navigating Hollywood Characters, a five-part series he's been doing this week. I was told that there was one on the reporters, Eileen. So I think we need to read that today.
Elaine Lu (02:27):
Boy, I think we're in for it.
Sean McAnulty (02:28):
I'm not sure that would be a good way to end our week. But anyway, you can check out all of these pieces at theankler.com, and Richard will give us his thoughts on that in a moment. But Elaine, one of the mentors, didn't know how to handle an earnings call. See what I did there? We'll move on to the earnings call conversation.
Elaine Lu (02:44):
That's great. it's great. very soft.
Sean McAnulty (02:46):
Yeah, it's actually not my best. It's Friday morning, people. I just listened to Warner Bros. Discovery for 1 hour and 15 minutes and delved into the earnings report. So my mindset will be what it is, but what we're going to do, we can do. WBD's big Q4 earnings report dropped this morning. Wall Street, it sure doesn't really feel that way. The stock is down about 11 or 12 percent this morning so far as we're recording. Eileen, we haven't talked yet, so you're getting a new conversation with people. Eileen, what's special about you here?
Elaine Lu (03:15):
Look, it's a beautiful day here in Los Angeles. The rain has finally passed us by. It wasn't a great morning here for Warner Bros. Discovery, which lost profits and revenue, right? A larger-than-expected loss per share, and a significant decline in studio revenue, which he attributes partly to the strikes, but also to the network segment. Ad sales, not so hot, right? I mean there were some good numbers, if you look at the full year numbers, there are some bright spots there, but we're only looking at the last quarter, right?
