By Some of our worst dystopian fears seem to be coming true. According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has signed a deal with Cinelytic to utilize an AI-driven system that will help make decisions about which film projects to greenlight. The AI is said to be able to assess the value of certain stars in a given territory and predict how much money a film will make during its theater run and on streaming/home video platforms. Spooky!
Cinelytic founder Tobias Queisser told THR, “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.” WB’s Tonis Kiis added, “We make tough decisions every day that affect what — and how — we produce and deliver films to theaters around the world, and the more precise our data is, the better we will be able to engage our audiences.”
This all sounds a little scary, but Queisser reassures that Cinelytic isn’t about putting people out of work. The AI system is simply better at crunching numbers and revealing patterns that might not be readily apparent to humans. That sounds an awful lot like replacing humans, but what do I know?
Even with this new system, WB isn’t likely to completely abandon a human touch. A surprise smash hit like Joker would have never happened and WB isn’t going to want to leave $1 billion on the table. I suspect this AI will probably be used to asses potential films for the holes WB has in its schedule between big releases.
Warner Bros. Signs Deal for AI-Driven Film Management System (Exclusive) [The Hollywood Reporter]
