STAR TREK For Sale to Warner Bros.?!?!

[AndyDursin]

Fascinating...

[Monterey Jack]

Imagine going back thirty years, and telling someone that, one day, Disney would own Star Wars, and that WB would own Star Trek.

[Eric Paddon]

Cue Bugs Bunny. "Ehhhhh, what's up Spock?"

[Monterey Jack]

Cue Bugs Bunny. "Ehhhhh, what's up Spock?"

[scene cut for tax purposes]

[AndyDursin]

Sorry about Acme and the Coyote but this IP is a LOT more valuable than that film.

My take is, given the current state of Star Trek, it's fine with me.

And certainly better than the alternative, which is Paramount itself being sold to WB and effectively shut down. We don't need another studio going the way of Fox...not unless you like 3 or 4 megacorporations solely producing 99% of the world's entertainment.

[Chris Shaneyfelt]

Andy, why do you think Paramount would be willing to give up such a valuable IP? Are the current "Star Trek" TV shows performing badly? (I admit that I don't care for the current shows, but I didn't know how successful or unsuccessful they have been.)

[Monterey Jack]

And certainly better than the alternative, which is Paramount itself being sold to WB and effectively shut down. We don't need another studio going the way of Fox...not unless you like 3 or 4 megacorporations solely producing 99% of the world's entertainment.

It's infuriating that Disney essentially bought out Fox for no reason other than to have access to the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters...and the only thing they've done with them to date is simply recycle the Fox actors (Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Kelsey Grammer). They couldn't have just cut a deal for those characters alone, like they did with Sony and Spider-Man? It'd be weird to see Trek movies coming from WB (the way it'd be weird to see Paramount releasing Harry Potter movies), but it's a lesser-of-two-evils thing to just buy up one franchise as opposed to the whole studio, then letting the rest of their vast filmography rot in a vault somewhere.

[AndyDursin]

Andy, why do you think Paramount would be willing to give up such a valuable IP? Are the current "Star Trek" TV shows performing badly? (I admit that I don't care for the current shows, but I didn't know how successful or unsuccessful they have been.)

Paramount's cash issues as a studio are the reason Chris. The studio has been on the sale block here for the last few months and the good news is it seems Skydance, which has funded a lot of recent Paramount projects including TOP GUN MAVERICK, is the primary buyer that's interested right now. That would be better than the whole entity being consumed by Warner Bros. Discovery and basically ceasing to exist, as Fox did after it was gobbled up by Disney.

As far as Star Trek goes, it's one of the most valuable assets Paramount has, but it's also a situation where there's a fluctuation in the value of those assets and right now it's probably at a low point.

From the movie side of it -- that's a problem, and it's where most of the money is made. You can't just keep making STAR TREK movies and expect there to be an audience. This most recent incarnation lasted 2 installments before it petered out. And Trek is such a singular thing too...the reason those original movies were so popular, and I'm talking 1-6, is because the crew, the old show, the actors were beloved. Those movies had the benefit of 3 seasons that were rebroadcast over and over, never leaving the air even after it was canceled. By the time they made those movies EVERYONE knew about Trek and Captain Kirk, even non-fans.

You just can't duplicate that overnight. You can't plug in new actors (and JJ Abrams tried for a couple of movies before it ran out of gas) and expect there to be that connection. Even the NEXT GENERATION cast saw those limits as those movies petered out and they never really had the huge mainstream success that STAR TREK II, III, IV enjoyed (to say nothing of TMP which despite being ridiculed was a big hit).

So beyond the big success of JJ Abrams' initial STAR TREK, the MOVIE part of the TREK IP isn't worth very much right now...so that leaves the series/streaming element. Which is where we're at -- and that's this report Skydance apparently doesn't really care about Star Trek, and Paramount could get a cool cash influx from WB from such a sale, who would get all the series assets and the ability to make new shows.

I think from a fans perspective it's good. A lot of folks are tired of the heavy political sermonizing and hackneyed plots STAR TREK DISCOVERY has run into the ground. The other shows have been hit or miss, PICARD is coming to an end (and the beginning of that show was lousy too), and I think most fans would be FINE with a straight reset of Star Trek -- hopefully by people who really UNDERSTAND the franchise and what it is this time...and not people who they've had here, attempting to "broaden its appeal" by turning it into something it's not.

If they're going to do it -- the timing is, at least, right.

[Chris Shaneyfelt]

Thank you, Andy! Thanks to your explanation I can wrap my head around this. It would be interesting to see what WB would do with Star Trek, especially if, as you said, it's developed by people who actually understand the franchise. I have been yearning for a return to the magic that made classic Star Trek TV and films so great. I really appreciate your analysis and insights, Andy.

[AndyDursin]

Thanks Chris, I don't have any inside knowledge, it's just what my gut feeling tells me. If Skydance is mostly interested in movie making STAR TREK as a cinematic entity just has no juice right now. It's like you really need a series to pivot off the property, and at least in Doomcock's video, the word is Skydance just isn't interested in it, so it has a value separated from the rest of the studio.

Who knows, maybe nothing at all will happen and it'll remain at Paramount. But these are uncertain, fast moving and turbulent times in the entertainment world so I wouldn't put any plan past them at this point.