The entire DCU could be affected by Warner Bros. Discovery’s latest $2 billion loss, but CEO David Zaslav swears the company is backing the 10-year plan of James Gunn and is relying on the strength of the upcoming DC Superman and Flash projects.
Does Warner Bros. Discovery’s huge $2 billion quarterly loss push the new DCU movies off the table?
It’s probably not going to be a very happy quarterly shareholders report going out from Warner Bros. Discovery. New reports indicate the newly-merged corporation took a $2 billion loss this quarter following the massive restructuring. In light of a wave of penny-pinching and saving methods implemented by new CEO David Zaslav, including completely shelving the upcoming Batgirl movie, some are worrying that the media giant may be rethinking the upcoming brand relaunch of its DC Comics properties.
While it is highly unlikely that Warner Bros. Discovery will pull the plug on Superman: Legacy or The Brave and the Bold — two relaunches practically guaranteed to make money — some of the more obscure titles, such as Creature Commandos and The Authority, may end up being pushed back if the company can’t work out a presentable bottom line for its stockholders. In the meantime, it seems as though Warner Bros. Discovery may be “trimming the fat” when it comes to the publicity budgets for the upcoming Shazam! and Aquaman sequels.
Will ‘Superman: Legacy’ save the day for the DCU?
Whatever financial straits Warner Bros. Discovery seems to be in, there is at least one somewhat unlikely ally; David Zaslav, the corporation’s CEO and James Gunn’s boss. Even though Zaslav was largely responsible for the recently jettisoned Batgirl film, he has made it clear that his company is committed to telling the stories of the DC Universe. Particularly Superman.
The Flash seems to be the horse DC Studios and Warner bros. Discovery is backing the hardest. The company appears to be gambling that the upcoming film, which will officially kick off the new DCU reboot, will be the biggest comic book movie since Spider-Man: No Way Home. But Zaslav insists that DC has a long future at Warner Bros. Discovery.
“We’re laser-focused on building this DC 10-year plan,” Zaslav stated during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “DC alone could and should be a game changer. I think there was a lot left on the table. We got to take those swings. We got some of the best creatives in the industry right now focused on those swings.”
It appears that for now, those looking forward to a new improved DC Universe can breathe easily.
With ‘Fury of the Gods’ and ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ looking like they may be DOA, will “The Flash” be the hero DC needs?
It’s hard to believe that there are still several non-DCU properties still in the pipeline at DC studios — and the way Warner Bros. Discovery is promoting them, it’s becoming easier to forget them as well. The upcoming Shazam! sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods is looking more and more like it’s going to be yet another comic book movie disappointment, and Jason Momoa’s next Aquaman movie is reportedly suffering from increasing post-production setbacks.
It’s little surprise then that the company is pinning a lot of hope on The Flash, a task that was already daunting considering the past behavior of its star, Ezra Miller. It’s no surprise then that many fans raised an eyebrow when James Gunn declared the movie to be one of the greatest comic book flicks he’s ever seen. After all, he would hardly pan a film he had so much riding on. But it’s looking more and more like Gunn wasn’t blowing any smoke with his statement.
DC’s decision to screen the film at CinemaCon a full month prior to its official release means that the studio is betting that audiences will be just as impressed as Gunn. The last movie to do so was Top Gun: Maverick — one of last year’s biggest hits —and if The Flash manages to pull the same stunt, and DC’s higher-ups seem to be confident it will, the studio may have its first bonafide smash on its hands since the heyday of The Dark Knight.