In terms of creating a compelling cinematic universe, the DC Universe from Warner Bros. has typically lagged behind the MCU from Marvel Studios in the comic book movie scene.
While WB’s DCEU skipped directly over that stage, Marvel Studios established a foundation over several years, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man and culminating in the MCU’s first event in 2012’s The Avengers. The studio created a Man of Steel movie before launching Batman v. Superman and Justice League. To put it mildly, the huge Joss Whedon team-up film did critically and commercially poorly. Since then, WB’s overall intentions for its DC Comics properties haven’t been very well-organized. Since then, many films have been produced, including Shazam!, The Batman, and most recently Black Adam. However, none of them are cohesive or connected in any way.
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros., has acknowledged some areas where his company falls short of Marvel Studios.
DC’s Weaknesses in Comparison to Marvel
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros., spoke on The Price-to-Value Podcast with Southeastern Asset Management about the company’s advantages over rivals like Marvel Studios and its weaknesses.
Zaslav acknowledged that Marvel is “seven, eight, or nine times bigger,” but he believed that having icons like “Batman” or “Superman” helped them stand on their own:
“… When you compare DC to Marvel, Marvel is seven, eight, nine times bigger, but we have Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman. There’s a lot of opportunity there with Harry Potter. And then finally we having gaming, which is a very nice business for us. So, when I look at the businesses, the businesses themselves, I feel like, we have great assets and great businesses… I really like our hand.”
“… Our job is just to build a great business. But, it was significantly worse than we thought. And it is significantly worse than we thought. Some of that is that the economy is worse, and the advertising market is worse, and the overall economy [is] worse… [there’s also a lot of stuff] that happened this year between… the AT&T end-of-year numbers and when we took over; that’s the bad news. The good news is, that because it’s a lot worse… there’s a lot more opportunity than we thought.”
“There are a lot of things that we think, that I think, and as a leadership team, we think we could turn around quicker, there’s a lot more things that we can fix that’s either broken, or wounded, or that we can manage better. So I think the business is operating at a level that we need now to… and we are focused very hard on turning it around.”
He pointed out that franchises like Game of Thrones or DC Comics exist not only on their own merits but also on the merits of everything that came before from the series as a whole, which is something that has great value:
“You come over to Warner, we have the same or more tentpoles [as Disney]. And the reason that that’s important is, one of the reasons that House of the Dragon was so successful is that Game of Thrones was the most successful series in the history of premium… It already existed and people loved it. And if you bring back a new Batman movie or a new Superman movie, not only do you get the value of that motion picture, but you get the whole fanbase that loves it plus as you go outside the US, Europe and Latin America have about 41 or 42% of theaters that are in the US. And they have local content. And so there’s a big competition for whether you get space outside the US. But when you launch a Batman or a Superman or an Aquaman or a Wonder Woman or an Iron Man, you get space in almost every theater in the world.”
The CEO concluded by praising their relationship with director Matt Reeves and how they can collaborate with him to expand content for HBO in addition to working on The Batman and its sequel.
“… but we can open a motion picture everywhere in the world under the Warner Bros. banner, and then we can put you on HBO on Sunday night, and we can say, like we did with Matt Reeves, ‘Come and do Batman with us. We’ll take Batman around the world,’ but also, the Penguin character is really interesting, so we’re gonna do an HBO series with the Penguin. So, if somebody wants Matt Reeves, who’s one of the most talented guys in the town, you know, we can give him Batman as his muse and then we can work with him on Penguin on HBO. And so I think it’s a killer combination.”
What the Future Could Bring
Newly hired heads James Gunn and Peter Safran will be crucial in ensuring that Warner Bros. does a better job with its DC Comics material. Both appear enthusiastic about their plans, with Gunn even assuring fans that their goal is to tell the “Biggest Story Ever Told.”
Will they, however, keep their word? After all, WB has given its audience plenty of meaningless platitudes over the previous few years. Dwayne Johnson was promoting his DC Plans a few weeks ago. But all the actor has tried to hype up might not come to pass given that his film wasn’t the great success he hoped for and that the DC Universe now has new leaders.