Warner Bros. Discovery to Focus on Franchises Like Superman and Harry Potter

The hierarchy of power at Warner Bros. Discovery has changed, and CEO David Zaslav is committed to what’s powering the company: franchises. In April, Discovery completed its acquisition of WarnerMedia from AT&T to form Warner Bros. Discovery, doing away with the regime that decided to release the studio’s entire 2021 slate day-and-date in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. Zaslav, in no uncertain terms, announced the merged company’s “strategic shift” away from expensive direct-to-streaming movies like the scrapped Batgirl and towards exhibition and the exclusive theatrical window. With Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam and a DC Studios shakeup that put James Gunn and Peter Safran in charge of the DC Universe, it’s the studio’s big blockbusters — and the biggest heroes — wielding all the power.

“We’re going to have a real focus on franchises,” Zaslav said during WBD’s Q3 earnings call Thursday. “We haven’t had a Superman movie in 13 years. We haven’t had a Harry Potter movie in 15 years.”

The last solo Superman movie was Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel in 2013, which launched the DC Extended Universe — recently renamed the DCU — with Henry Cavill’s Superman. 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 concluded the Harry Potter saga, which has continued with the Wizarding World franchise of the stalled Fantastic Beasts movies.

“The DC movies and the Harry Potter movies provided a lot of profits to Warner Bros motion pictures over the last 25 years,” Zaslav said. On the streaming side, HBO Max’s Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon is “a big example” of the power of the franchise: its August premiere recorded the biggest HBO series premiere ever. 

“Taking advantage of Sex and the City [with And Just Like That…]. Lord of the Rings — we still have the right to do Lord of the Rings movies,” Zaslav noted. “You focus on the big movies, the tentpoles that people are going to leave home, leave early from dinner to see.”

“The DC movies and the Harry Potter movies provided a lot of profits to Warner Bros motion pictures over the last 25 years,” Zaslav said. On the streaming side, HBO Max’s Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon is “a big example” of the power of the franchise: its August premiere recorded the biggest HBO series premiere ever. 

“Taking advantage of Sex and the City [with And Just Like That…]. Lord of the Rings — we still have the right to do Lord of the Rings movies,” Zaslav noted. “You focus on the big movies, the tentpoles that people are going to leave home, leave early from dinner to see.” 

On producing straight-to-streaming movies or sending movies to streaming without waiting at least 45 days, Zaslav said, “We learned what doesn’t work. And this is what doesn’t work for us based on everything that we’ve seen: direct-to-streaming movies. Or spending a billion dollars or collapsing a motion picture window into a streaming service.”

He added: “The movies that we launch in theaters do significantly better, and launching a 2-hour, 40-minute movie direct to streaming has done nothing for HBO Max in terms of viewership, retention, or love of the service.”

As part of its wider DC course correction now being steered by Gunn and Safran, Zaslav’s WBD has brought back Cavill’s Superman and is actively developing a Man of Steel 2. On Thursday’s call, Zaslav also said he hopes to “do something going forward” with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.