Update: Warner Bros. has reached out to clarify that the deal with Cinelytic is being utilized by Warner Bros. Pictures International, and not the domestic studio. Any decisions made by WBPI using this AI system will have no effect on domestic distribution or marketing. The original story follows with further clarification.
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It’s not the latest episode of Black Mirror or even Entourage, not yet at least. Warner Bros. Pictures International has signed a deal with the company Cinelytic, an “AI-driven project management system,” which the studio will use when considering new feature films to greenlight. According to the announcement, the studio will use the “comprehensive data and predictive analytics” within the system to aid in decisions regarding new projects including casting and potential profits both in theaters and through streaming revenues. WBPI isn’t the first to use this system when considering future projects, but is the first of the major studios to opt in, perhaps after a string of films that failed to light the box office ablaze in 2019.
When considering casting options for a project, the Cinelytic system will reportedly gauge the “value of a star” in any territory, a practice that perhaps may not be fair to talent that are unfamiliar to international audiences. Furthermore it will be able to present studio decision makers with more precise monetary amounts in regard to marketing and distribution costs, including regarding release dates. The system was reportedly used on the indie films Wind River and The Little Hours.
One area where the system will reportedly really come in handy for the studio is in factoring in bidding wars at independent film festivals like Sundance. WB’s New Line Cinema acquired the film Blinded by the Light for $15 million at Sundance in January of 2019 and the film crashed at the box office and brought in $18 million worldwide. Using the Cinelytic system the studio might have had a better idea of the value the film would have worldwide and adjusted their bid accordingly.
“The system can calculate in seconds what used to take days to assess by a human when it comes to general film package evaluation or a star’s worth,” founder Tobias Queisser said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Artificial intelligence sounds scary. But right now, an AI cannot make any creative decisions. What it is good at is crunching numbers and breaking down huge datasets and showing patterns that would not be visible to humans. But for creative decision-making, you still need experience and gut instinct.”
Even though this deal is brand new for the studio, many films and projects are already well underway for the studio stretching well into the future. The upcoming Birds of Prey will be the studio’s first release of 2020 and arrives February 7 with release dates already set throughout 2021 (including The Batman and Space Jam 2) and into 2022 (including Aquaman 2 and Shazam! 2). As a result, we may not see any movies that were aided in their decision making by the system from the very beginning until 2023.
