Westworld began as a bright new hope on HBO, a bold sci-fi show that blew viewers away for its first season in 2016.
Unfortunately, that was to be the climax of the series. The first season ended with the robot “hosts” in the titular theme park becoming self-aware and plotting revenge on their cruel human tormentors. That sounded juicy, but while Season 2 had some standout moments, it wasn’t as consistently great as Season 1. Season 3 took the show in a different, much more boring direction, and while Season 4 was an improvement, the damage was done.
Ratings plummeted and never recovered. While it was a shame to hear last week that HBO had canceled Westworld ahead of a planned fifth and final season, I can’t say it came as a surprise, especially considering how sporadically new episodes have been released and how expensive theirs are production was . According to Deadline, Season 3 brought in around $100 million for HBO. With so few participants, the risk-return calculation didn’t even come close.
Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris and other Westworld stars get paid well for doing nothing
But while HBO won’t be producing a final season, it’s still costing them. The main cast — Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, and Aaron Paul — are still getting paid well for a season they don’t have to work on. Deadline says their salaries will range from $10 million to $15 million at HBO.
This happens because these actors had pay-or-play deals, which means that HBO pays them exorbitant salaries regardless of whether they direct new episodes or not. (And that, by the way, comes from original series cast members like Wood and Harris, who are now making hundreds of millions of dollars per episode for seasons.)
It’s not uncommon for studios to strike such deals with big-name actors. However, it’s unfair, outrageous, and generally slapped backwards. Just think about it: handles, electricians, cinematographers, screenwriters, special effects technicians, makeup artists, caterers, and other professionals who survive from gig to gig in Hollywood are now unemployed. But actors who are already multi-millionaires get paid more for doing nothing. It’s amazingly stupid.
Expect less expensive series like Westworld in the future
The announcement that HBO will cancel Westworld came after a difficult earnings call that saw Warner Bros. Discovery’s new CEO, David Zaslav, take seriously his desire to cut costs at the studio. “The great experiment of creating something at any cost is over,” he said.
Deadline’s sources say Westworld’s cancellation had nothing to do with Zaslav’s new vision for the studio. It was just that HBO was spending a lot of money on a show that very few people saw; the return on investment just wasn’t there.
However, I expect that, at least at Warner Bros. Discovery, less highly ambitious, expensive projects will be launched in the future. Shows like Westworld and The Rings of Power show people that throwing tons of money at a show (whether that money goes on spectacular effects, expensive actors, or both) isn’t necessarily a good thing. And if the quality isn’t there, people won’t be watching. I think studio heads notice that.
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