If you keep your lens focused enough, Warner Bros. seems to be doing a great job. The studio currently has the number one movie in the world withDune: Part Two, which has already grossed over $200 million worldwide since opening last week. Given the dearth of would-be blockbusters slated for 2024, it could very well go on to be the biggest movie of the year.
That would putWBon top for two years in a row, followingBarbie’s billion-and-a-half buck breakout last summer. That unstoppable pink freight train became the highest grossing movie in Warner Bros. history (unadjusted for inflation).
On the games side of things, Warner Bros. Interactive also has reason to celebrate.Hogwarts Legacy, the Wizarding World-themed open-world RPG, did gangbusters on PC and consoles, beating out perennial juggernautCall of Dutyas the top-selling game of 2023.
Those successes, on their own, might suggest a company that knows what it’s doing. But you’re able to’t underestimate Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The biggest bomb in the studio’s history, The Flash, came out a month before Barbie, its greatest success. But that failure has many fathers, including the crash of the superhero boom, thetroubling and sometimes criminal behind-the-scenes behavior of star Ezra Miller, and the movie’s position as one of the last DCEU movies before James Gunn’s continuity reset.
If you set that film’s dismal box office aside, though, Warner Bros. recent handling of its films has been erratic at best, and downright anti-art at worst. First, the erratic: WB released three movies that each had blockbuster potential in their own right all within 12 days of each other —Wonkaon Dec. 15,Aquaman 2on Dec. 22, and The Color Purple on Dec. 27 — all but ensuring that they would cannibalize each other. Only Wonka was truly successful, with a $624.9 million gross on a $125 million budget. But Aquaman 2 did okay by the standard of 2023 superhero movies (which would make it a resounding failure in another year), and The Color Purple flopped. Releasing all three movies in the same window was a bizarre choice that oversaturated the market with product that was basically only competing against other Warner Bros. product.
And yes, calling movies ‘product’ does make my skin crawl a little bit, but Warner Bros. has made it clear that this is how it views the films and games it releases. Or, in a few cases, doesn’t. Warner Bros. is leading Hollywood in a race to the bottom in its pioneering use of the delete key, Ctrl+X-ing entire movies for the tax write-off. It’s done it multiple times now, permanently shelving or completely deleting the near-finished movies Coyote vs. ACME, Batgirl, and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt.
In games, Warner Bros. Discovery has proven similarly inept at reading the tea leaves. Its response toSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguebombingwas to double down on the aspects of that decade-in-the-making game-as-a-service that players most rejected,announcing plans to pivot away from single-player experiences in favor of forever games. That’s despite the fact that both Suicide Squad andGotham Knights, another GaaS, both underperformed, while Marvel’s single-playerSpider-Man gamesall sell like gangbusters and WB’s own single-player Arkham games were huge hits that remain beloved to this day. Or, you know, that WB’s own single-player Harry Potter game was huge enough to topple Call of Duty, the ultimate live game.
This pivot is just the latest in a long line of dispiriting decisions that have me exhausted with the current leadership of the 101-year-old company. It points to the deep need for people in charge who value art at leastas muchas they value money.
