What Zaslav Learned From Flopping

“Don’t let the blockbuster hit ‘A Minecraft Movie’ overshadow the fact that ‘The Alto Knights,’ a real movie distributed in theaters by Warner Bros., was released in 2025 at David Zaslav‘s request. Michael Wolff writes in an April 14 Intelligencer report that following the film’s flop, Zaslav concluded “film drama is dead.” Interestingly, Zaslav decided to produce the movie due to his friend Nick Pileggi’s script for it. Robert De Niro played two mobsters in this film, directed by Barry Levinson. Despite earning $3 million at the box office, its production budget was between $45 and 50 million. Other studios rejected it, including Warner Bros., but Zaslav insisted on it, according to the report. The lessons from ‘The Alto Knights’ failure and ‘Minecraft’s success are that building franchises is the future of film.

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2025-04-14 22:55