Things are not looking good at Warner Bros.—at least, that’s the conclusion one might draw after reading an extensive article on the platform Puck. It appears that changes in the studio’s leadership may be coming soon.
Warner Bros. Pictures Executives on the Way Out? David Zaslav Has Had Enough of Costly Box Office Flops
Puck reports that David Zaslav is planning to remove the current heads of Warner Bros. Pictures, Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. One of the leading candidates to replace them is Peter Safran, who currently runs DC Studios alongside James Gunn.
Why does Zaslav want to replace the WBP executives? The answer, of course, is money. Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have followed a strategy of catering to auteur filmmakers, granting top directors massive budgets to keep them working with Warner Bros.
This approach came in response to the failure of Project Popcorn, which scrapped exclusive theatrical releases for major films, instead debuting them directly on HBO Max. This move alienated many filmmakers. Additionally, Zaslav’s decisions to shelve completed or nearly completed films, such as Coyote vs. Acme, did not help the situation.
For a while, the studio’s strategy seemed to work, attracting major directors. The problem, however, is that these costly investments have not translated into profits. The first major issue was Joker: Folie à Deux, and now Mickey 17 has become another expensive box office failure.
A Bleak Future and the High-Stakes Gamble on “Superman”
The future doesn’t look much better. Warner Bros. has spent well over $100 million on a new film by Paul Thomas Anderson—whose highest-grossing movie to date, There Will Be Blood, made just $77 million worldwide (with $40 million from the U.S.).
Another potential problem is The Bride! by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Warner Bros. invested over $100 million in the project after Netflix dropped it. According to reports, early test screenings have been disastrous, suggesting that the studio may need to spend millions more to salvage the film.
With all this uncertainty, pressure is mounting for the upcoming Superman movie, which is now seen as the studio’s potential savior. If the film succeeds, it could help stabilize Warner Bros. Discovery’s stock by convincing Wall Street that the studio still has a profitable brand.
A massive box office hit for Superman would also help offset the financial burden of the studio’s other costly misfires.
It’s difficult to predict what Zaslav will do if Superman doesn’t turn out to be a hit.
