Report By An Insider Claims The Fate Of DC And Warner Bros. Hangs In The Balance If ‘Superman’ Is Not Successful
We keep hearing that Warner Bros. is on such shaky ground that it might cease to exist as we know – as an independent entity and one of the pillars of Hollywood. A new inside report says that is definitely true, but they have a ray of hope.
What is it? As you can probably guess, it’s Superman, up in the sky to save the day. That’s WB’s hope anyway as nothing is really assured or that simple. According to a source for Puck News who allegedly has inside knowledge of the system, the studio is putting all their chips behind James Gunn’s reboot.
But it’s not just The Man of Steel they are banking on. As CEO David Zaslav has mentioned in the past, Warner puts a high value on the DC IP on the whole. They want that to be the money-making attraction it used to be so that they can be kingpins of major blockbusters and superhero cinema again with a leg up over Marvel.
Puck reports, “Meanwhile, Gunn and [Peter] Safran are busy with a little project of their own: Superman – the July release that has now taken on almost incalculable importance to Warner Bros. Discovery. If Warners can’t finally make the DC franchise work, there is genuine fear that the studio will go the way of Fox, which was swallowed by Disney in 2019.”
(H/T Cosmic Book News for the transcript.)
DC is an important component to the stock price which could tumble if the brand proves irrevocably unviable. “An essential element of the stock price is believing that the I.P. of DC is meaningful,” says Puck’s source who is identified as a Warner Bros. veteran.
“David [Zaslav] bet big that they can show the world that the DC I.P. can have real value. Superman is the first movie. That will set the tone. They have a tremendous amount riding on it,” they continue. “That’s a staggering amount of pressure on Safran and especially Gunn, who is directing. But if the movie doesn’t work, at least no one can say it’s Mike [De Luca] and Pam’s [Abdy] fault. Unless folks want to blame the marketing.”
The marketing for Superman has been lackluster aside from the trailer and its record breaking traffic. Frankly, the Puppy Bowl is not the Super Bowl although to be fair, ad space during the big game didn’t help The Flash. Maybe Gunn, Safran, and Zaslav are playing it smart by doing the opposite of expectations.
(Emphasis on maybe, and hypothetically speaking.)
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