Post by politicidal on Dec 22, 2022 1:05:49 GMT
Industry expert Matt Belloni, former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, spoke candidly about the matter in a recent episode of his podcast, The Town. Summarizing the company’s disastrous year, Belloni called DC’s on and off-screen issues the “debacle of the year,” whilst also suggesting that the company seems to lack focus and direction. Read the full comments below:
“Alright, my debacle of the year… I’m gonna go to one division of Warner Bros. Discovery, and that is DC. And, if you look at the year that DC has had, it is quite something. I mean, putting aside that they restarted the Batman franchise in March, which was I think, given everything involved, that movie doing $770 million worldwide is a success, so put that aside. But the rest of the year is not great at DC. If you look at, first of all, they had League of Super-Pets, which came out this summer, grossed about $200 million, not a hit. They had Black Adam with the Rock, which was delayed out of summer and released in the fall, that movie cost almost $200 million and did about $390 million, which is not enough when you’re talking about DC superhero movies.
Then, they have had one after another controversy and scandal associated with the movies, everything from the Ezra Miller situation on The Flash, where it’s unclear how they are gonna handle that movie going forward, when Ezra Miller has now been charged with a crime and there’s all sorts of other stuff swirling around Ezra Miller. They had the Zaslav debacle where the Batgirl movie was cancelled after it was finished for a tax write-off, and that just enraged all the people who worked on that movie, became a narrative throughout the fall. If you look at, even, Aquaman 2, the star of that, one of the stars, Amber Heard, had her whole Johnny Depp situation that dragged Warner Bros. into it through DC. Ray Fisher, who is on Justice League, continued to make his claims of discrimination and racism against the studio.
Then, you look at the executive stuff. They brought in new leadership, with James Gunn and Peter Safran, this year, and that has been a rocky transition. Walter Hamada, who previously had the job, he knew he was out but he was a lame duck, and it was this awkward situation where they were supposedly trying to get him to stay and he didn’t stay. Then, they had this really awkward situation where Henry Cavill was shoehorned into the end of Black Adam as Superman, suggesting that he is back as Superman. The Instagram takeover he did also suggested that he was back as Superman. But then, days later, the new DC guys come in. They say, ‘You know what, we’re not gonna do that,’ and almost seven or eight weeks later, they call Henry Cavill into their office and say, ‘Yeah, you’re fired. We’re getting a new Superman.’
“Alright, my debacle of the year… I’m gonna go to one division of Warner Bros. Discovery, and that is DC. And, if you look at the year that DC has had, it is quite something. I mean, putting aside that they restarted the Batman franchise in March, which was I think, given everything involved, that movie doing $770 million worldwide is a success, so put that aside. But the rest of the year is not great at DC. If you look at, first of all, they had League of Super-Pets, which came out this summer, grossed about $200 million, not a hit. They had Black Adam with the Rock, which was delayed out of summer and released in the fall, that movie cost almost $200 million and did about $390 million, which is not enough when you’re talking about DC superhero movies.
Then, they have had one after another controversy and scandal associated with the movies, everything from the Ezra Miller situation on The Flash, where it’s unclear how they are gonna handle that movie going forward, when Ezra Miller has now been charged with a crime and there’s all sorts of other stuff swirling around Ezra Miller. They had the Zaslav debacle where the Batgirl movie was cancelled after it was finished for a tax write-off, and that just enraged all the people who worked on that movie, became a narrative throughout the fall. If you look at, even, Aquaman 2, the star of that, one of the stars, Amber Heard, had her whole Johnny Depp situation that dragged Warner Bros. into it through DC. Ray Fisher, who is on Justice League, continued to make his claims of discrimination and racism against the studio.
Then, you look at the executive stuff. They brought in new leadership, with James Gunn and Peter Safran, this year, and that has been a rocky transition. Walter Hamada, who previously had the job, he knew he was out but he was a lame duck, and it was this awkward situation where they were supposedly trying to get him to stay and he didn’t stay. Then, they had this really awkward situation where Henry Cavill was shoehorned into the end of Black Adam as Superman, suggesting that he is back as Superman. The Instagram takeover he did also suggested that he was back as Superman. But then, days later, the new DC guys come in. They say, ‘You know what, we’re not gonna do that,’ and almost seven or eight weeks later, they call Henry Cavill into their office and say, ‘Yeah, you’re fired. We’re getting a new Superman.’
All of this – they got rid of the Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman 3 treatment – all of this has just been a year of chaos at DC. And some would say that it’s justified, that when you bring in new leadership, you have to clear house and start over, and they have what they say is a clear plan that they will articulate at some point. But to me, it’s the debacle of the year.”