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After a string of box office disappointments execs at Warner Bros Discovery might be planning to suck profitable TCM dry.

“Turner Classic Movies has always been more than just a channel,” read the statement. “It is truly a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” 

by LOU AGUILAR

For the past decade, my television viewing had alternated almost exclusively between Fox News and Turner Classic Movies, with the occasional PBS British mystery. In the two months since Fox fired Tucker Carlson, it has been only TCM. The vintage film channel is a unique window on the richness of 20th century America through its defining art form — cinema.  TCM revolutionized the presentation of some of the finest pictures ever made by showing them commercial-free in their entirety and their original form, post 1953 in spectacular cinemascope. 

Now the marvelous vintage film network is in mortal danger, once again due to the stupidity and ineptitude of corporate executives, in this case those at the parent company, Warner Bros.

Last week, threatened budget cuts by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav prompted the departure of numerous high-level TCM officials, including the vice-presidents of programming (Charles Tabesh), production (Anne Wilson), marketing (Dexter Fedor), and TCM Enterprises (Genevieve McGillicuddy), with more heads on the block. The reason for the bloodbath seems obvious. While TCM has been perennially profitable thanks to the love of film shared by both its personnel and devout fan base, Warner Brothers studio appears to be a bottomless money drain.

A logical link can be made between Warner’s latest box office disaster The Flash — budget $200 million, opening weekend gross $55 million — and the TCM exodus. The implosion of The Flash is not just a direct financial blow, it jeopardizes an entire slate of DC Comics projects, like the new adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman, and other superhero franchises. Because the people in charge of them have no idea of what they’re doing, and clearly far less talent than the auteurs whose work TCM showcases. Consequently, gutting the channel would save Warner honchos a little money and a lot of embarrassment.

Ironically, last April, TCM celebrated the studio’s 100th anniversary with a 24/7 marathon of its unforgettable pictures, such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, The Exorcist, and — salt on Warner’s The Flash wound — the first superhero picture, the delightful Superman. Rewatching all of these for the umpteenth time, I realized that nothing the studio has done this century comes remotely close to any one of them. Even the lesser titles shown on TCM display a level of storytelling and execution far beyond today’s filmmakers. This could be partly explained by the decline in American culture, which the old movies expose to our detriment.

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