At the recent Warner Bros. Discovery Earning Call (following the completion of the WB-Discovery merger) CEO David Zazlav laid out the company’s plan to overhaul their DC Universe brand.
Historically DC hasn’t had as much success as their counterparts at Marvel. Usually Batman films do well, but other properties like Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman etc. have fluctuated in both quality and in box office earnings. Meanwhile films in the MCU have been earning billions each year for over a decade.
But with a number of recent MCU projects not doing as well both critically and financially could now be DC’s time to strike?
During the earnings call Zazlav emphasized on the fact that they have developed a 10 year plan to compete with Marvel:
“As we look at the opportunities that we have broadly, DC is at the top of the list for us. You look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman, these are brands that are known everywhere in the world and the ability to drive those all over the world with great stories is a big opportunity for us. We have done a reset. We’ve restructured the business where we’re going to focus. There will be a team with a ten-year plan focusing just on DC. It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney.“
“We think that we can build a long-term, much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC. And as part of that we’re going to focus on quality, we’re not going to release any film before it’s ready. We’re not going to release a film to make a quarter, the focus is going to be ‘how do we make these films in general as good as possible?’ But DC is something we think we could make better, and we’re focusing on it now.“
With DC apparently hitting the reset button on their films (and canceling projects like Batgirl) this could be the opportunity they have been looking for. With characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, Batman etc. now it could be their time to shine as bright as Marvel as fatigue with the MCU is beginning to become apparent.
What do you think? Can DC dethrone Marvel?
Source: The Direct
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