Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Rumored To Be Furious At Film Division Co-Heads Michael De Luca And Pamela Abdy About The Failure Of ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’
Joker was a surprising smash hit in 2019. It coasted to a billion dollars and earned its star, Joaquin Phoenix, several awards including an Oscar. A sequel was a no-brainer, but Joker: Folie a Deux bombed harder than anyone expected last October.
Apparently, the head of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav wasn’t pleased about the sequel’s failure and let the chiefs of WB Pictures Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy know it. In fact, Bloomberg shared information from a source claiming Zaslav tore into the pair at a closed-door meeting in New York.
Zaslav allegedly “railed against the performance of the film” and then “decried the mounting costs of the studio’s upcoming releases.” Considering Warner’s losing streak, especially with DC lately, and their mounting losses, that reaction from the CEO is understandable on a business level.
However, a WBD representative disputes the claim of Bloomberg’s source and described the meeting with Abdy and De Luca as a “straightforward Joker 2 postmortem.” The pair began their involvement with developing the film in 2022 when the merger between WarnerMedia and Discover, Inc., closed.
Bloomberg noted that the studio’s troubles are like an anchor around the neck of the parent company, which has lost considerable market value since the critical merger. The problems date back to the old regime, but Abdy and De Luca, who were brought in to turn things around, seem now like more of an industrial-grade bandage.
The studio is supposed to be watching its wallet, but costs still balloon past the $100 million range. Starting with Joker, for instance, that was a mid-budget movie yet Folie a Deux commanded a $200M cost. It didn’t recoup that amount, making only a fifth of its predecessor’s tally.
This year, WB is putting its chips behind the Bong Joon-ho/Robert Pattinson teamup Mickey 17 which has a price tag of $100M but is tracking for a $20M debut. Mickey 17 opens this weekend. Joker: Folie a Deux is streaming on Max.
Zaslav reflected on the latter’s failure during a conference call last November. “Inconsistency also remains an issue at our motion picture studio, as reinforced recently by the disappointing results of ‘Joker 2′,” he said via Variety.
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