Is WB/DC in Danger!?

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In larger cities, sure, stands are still relevant. I mostly mean in a Barnes and Nobel kinda way though. I don’t know that going digital only will make it particularly easy to attract new readers. I was six when I picked up my first book at a gas station newsstand across from my elementary school. Why buy it? Because I loved the movies, and the cover was amazing and in my face.

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There will shortly be no newsstand to go back to.

Entertainment Weekly is gone and it’s rumored People Magazine may soon follow.

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As far as DC’s sales are concerned, the rankings look a bit grim, but we are missing information we used to have. If Action Comics is ranked #95 but still selling close to 30,000 copies as it did last year, then it’s fine. If it’s starting to sell closer to 20,000 copies, then DC has a major problem.

A bigger concern may be the general economic headwinds as we seem to be entering a period of recession and stagflation. A similar set of circumstances nearly killed off DC in the 1970s.

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I’m hoping with next year being Superman’s 85th that they’ll push Action Comics and Son of Kal-El more.

Also yeah newstands aren’t what they used to be. But I agree it would be nice if they could get monthly comics back in Barnes & Noble! I know some Books A Millions still sell floppies so B&N should as well!

It would also be nice if DC could make some kind of deal with Target stores to sell more of the graphic novels and kid/ya OGNs. That could help sells as well!

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Thats still not good for Action Comics

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I’d rather they de-age Jon and bring back the normal Superman title

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With everything thats gone down recently i’d say that yes, WB & DC are in Danger!! :smiling_face_with_tear:

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Personally I’m worried about the Blue Beetle & Static Shock movies! And Milestone in general.

With a bigot like Zaslav in charge of WBD I worry about the future of DC Comics and the Milestone Initiative.

I hope I’m wrong but given Batgirl got scrubbed (a movie featuring a diverse cast) I have a bad feeling.

Not to mention The Flash is still coming out despite the fact it will most likely bomb due to all the criminal allegations against Ezra Miller.

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@SuperBrainiac

Personally I’m worried about the Blue Beetle & Static Shock movies! And Milestone in general.

With a bigot like Zaslav in charge of WBD I worry about the future of DC Comics and the Milestone Initiative.

I hope I’m wrong but given Batgirl got scrubbed (a movie featuring a diverse cast) I have a bad feeling.

Not to mention The Flash is still coming out despite the fact it will most likely bomb due to all the criminal allegations against Ezra Miller.

I wouldn’t really worry about that just yet…

And speaking as someone who is Black and wants to see Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Superman project more than anything, and understands that’s probably not going to happen either.

The thing to look for is what he green lights, not what he cancels. Because the things he’s canceling he didn’t green-light. No, it’s all stuff left over and that he inherited, and obviously doesn’t want to do.

So what he does going forward is what he should be judged on, I think.

A few things immediately come to mind:

One, Bitter Root

Legendary is producing that and they have a history of working with Warner Bros. – they of course recently did Dune (and will be doing the sequel, and possibly the Bene Gesserit HBO Max spin-off if that goes forward) with Warner Bros…

Anyway, if he axes Bitter Root… that’s maybe a cause for a little concern. But of course there’s no guarantee that’s coming to Warner Bros. anyway, just that Legendary is producing it.

Two, Black

If he axes that, that may not be that much of a cause for concern, because the subject matter of that was a little iffy anyway. I’m interested in it, but I don’t think that was ever going to make a lot of money.

But just the same, it is Warner Bros., so he’ll be the one to decided what happens to it, whether it goes forward or not.

Last, Prince of Cats

One of my all-time favorite comics.

Legendary again is doing it, so no guarantee it’s coming to Warner Bros., but that would be the first place I would think it would go. And PRINCE OF CATS was at Vertigo.

And LaKeith Stanfield was set to star, and he just did Judas and The Black Messiah (one of my all-time favorite movies) at Warner Bros. with Daniel Kaluuya.

And they were both up for the Oscar for Best Actor for it with Daniel Kaluuya winning the Oscar for Best Actor.

Why they didn’t put one up for Best Actor and the other up for Best Supporting Actor is beyond me, but whatever… :smiling_face:

And Spike Lee of course did Malcolm X at Warner Bros. (also one of my all-time favorite movies).

And yes, Prince of Cats has been in development hell forever, but it is something that might be coming from Warner Bros., so it may be worth keeping an eye on and what David Zaslav does or doesn’t do with it.

In the immediate future (like in the next year or two) on the non-comic book and super-hero front:

Creed III is still happening, it was just moved back that’s all. I’ve never seen any of them and never had any interest in seeing them, but it’s still happening.

And The Color Purple is still happening. And it’s going to be a musical this time.

And Oprah Winfrey is involved with it…

The Color Purple is one of my top two of three favorite movies ever (and of course Warner Bros. did that too with Steven Spielberg).

Anyway, now if David Zaslav axes this new The Color Purple, with Oprah Winfrey involved in it… then it’s like, “Okay, what exactly are you doing, guy?” :smiling_face:

No, but yeah, what David Zaslav green-lights is what he should be judged on, I think.

All of these cancellations that he’s doing now are just business as usual. New bosses do what they want to do, and not necessarily what the old bosses wanted to do – sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

What comes out in 2024 and after is what to look for, because that’s when the David Zaslav stuff will start to come out.

EDIT:

And if then there are any questions, then there may be a problem and it may be time to start worrying.

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I guess, still Zaslav is already Damaging WB’s brand and reputation. Since they had their presentation a couple of days ago WBD stock has plummeted! Its down over 16% and is only at $14.59 cents a share.

Its painfully obvious Zaslav is bad for Business! I hope and pray he’s replaced with someone more competent from the WB side of things sooner rather then later, while there’s still a WB/DC left to save!

On the DC side of things, why couldn’t WB get a creative person in charge who is also enthusiastic about DC? I would nominate James Gunn.

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Give it time

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Lots of rumors and speculation rampant. Supergirl did get cancelled for sure. Still unconfirmed that HBOMax will stop production on all scripted series. So far that is only a rumor but makes sense since Max is going to be folded into Discoveryplus and there is no sense with going ahead with production until they know what the platform will look like.

@SuperBrainiac

I guess, still Zaslav is already Damaging WB’s brand and reputation. Since they had their presentation a couple of days ago WBD stock has plummeted! Its down over 16% and is only at $14.59 cents a share.

Its painfully obvious Zaslav is bad for Business! I hope and pray he’s replaced with someone more competent from the WB side of things sooner rather then later, while there’s still a WB/DC left to save!

He’s damaging it to the people who are upset over the cancellation of the Batgirl HBO Max streaming movie.

No one else cares. And trust me when I say that. :smile:

And the next hit Warner Bros. movie that comes out those same people will still not care.

And looking at the list of upcoming Warner Bros. movies, and…

Salem’s Lot is probably going to do okay. It’s based on the Stephen King novel, so those usually do well – at least It and Pennywise did well for Warner Bros…

Barbie looks like it’s going to be silly fun, so that’ll probably do fine.

Dune: Part Two is going to do well.

I guess they’re doing Wonka with Timothée Chalamet. He’s a draw, so that’ll be fine.

Furiosa is going to do well.

Joker: Folie à Deux is going to do well.

Emily… that’s about “the brief life of famed English writer Emily Brontë before she wrote Wuthering Heights.”

That’s probably going to win a f*cking Oscar, or get nominated for Best Picture or something.

The next The Batman movie is going to do well.

And the stock dropped… yeah, the company is $40 billion dollars in debt. Discovery knew that when they bought it.

And here’s how the stock market often works: “Buy the rumor, sell the news.”

We had news… that’s when you sell. That’s why the stock dropped. And now the stock is cheap… and now is the time when you start buying; if one wanted to invest in Warner Bros…

And you buy now and hold it for a few quarters. If it goes up in that time to a number that you want, you sell and take your profit. Or hold if you want to hold it long term. Or sell some and hold some… y’know, whatever the person wants to do, whatever fits their portfolio and their investing strategy.

I personally wouldn’t buy Warner Bros. stock regardless, because I wouldn’t invest in these old media companies anyway. But, y’know, whatever… :smiling_face:

Just buy Apple and hold, that’s what I do – unsolicited stock advice… :smile:

But yeah, when it comes to Warner Bros. and super-heroes, all they have is Batman. Everyone knows that, and some may not like it, but everyone knows it. And I think they’re just wasting their time and money with anything else. But it’s their company and their money, so they can obviously do what they want.

But yeah, the cancellation of the Batgirl HBO Max streaming movie means nothing to anyone else other than the people online who cared about it.

Warner Bros., and all of these old media companies: Paramount, Universal… throw Netflix in there too, I guess… they all have challenges ahead of them.

@patterson65.37405

On the DC side of things, why couldn’t WB get a creative person in charge who is also enthusiastic about DC? I would nominate James Gunn.

Can he run anything? Other than his own movies?

You need someone who knows how to run things. That’s who you want in charge.

Creatives aren’t usually the best people to put in charge. They know how to create things, but may not know how to be in charge of things.

@Clonegeek18

Give it time

Exactly.

Give the man until 2024 and 2025, when he puts out his own movies.

That’s how you do it.

“Show me what you got, what you thought is worthy.” That’s when the rubber hits the road.

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Dunno why it posted this twice. Sorry about that

Lots of people cared about the Batgirl movie, so saying nobody cares is insulting.

And plenty of people are justifiably not on board with Zaslav’s plan to merge HBOMAX with Discovery+

Don’t be surprised if most Warner Bros. Movies over the next 2-4 years just do ok and either just break even or lose money. WB’s reputation as a brand is already being damaged and that will effect other films reception.

Sure Joker 2 will probably do well because its joker. But I wouldn’t be surprised if alot of films didn’t do so hot in coming months/years.

@SuperBrainiac

Lots of people cared about the Batgirl movie, so saying nobody cares is insulting.

Yeah, I didn’t say nobody cares, I said:

He’s damaging it to the people who are upset over the cancellation of the Batgirl HBO Max streaming movie.

No one else cares. And trust me when I say that. :smile:

@SuperBrainiac

And plenty of people are justifiably not on board with Zaslav’s plan to merge HBOMAX with Discovery+

There were plenty of people who were upset with Warner Bros. over the Snyder Cut.

Yes, some one them were real, and some of them were bots, but, y’know… :laughing:

Either way, you have one group who gets upset over one thing, and you have another who gets upset over something else.

You have that with literally everything, and I don’t see how this is any different.

And online seems to exist for people to get upset over something. It’s really rather tired to me, but whatever…

And Warner Bros. has 92 million subscribers now. Last March they had like 48 million.

They want to be at 130 million by 2025. Let’s check back in 2025 and see where they’re at… or just check back next year when this merging of the services goes through.

It may go up, or may go down, or it may hold steady. Let’s see.

@SuperBrainiac

Don’t be surprised if most Warner Bros. Movies over the next 2-4 years just do ok and either just break even or lose money. WB’s reputation as a brand is already being damaged and that will effect other films reception.

Sure Joker 2 will probably do well because its joker. But I wouldn’t be surprised if alot of films didn’t do so hot in coming months/years.

Honestly, that Batgirl movie never even had a release date. Only we knew about it, the general public had no idea of it’s existence.

And when they green-lit it, it was intended to be a streaming movie. And they didn’t even give it a big budget: $70 million dollars. It was never something that they expected to be big. It was just content for the service.

And there was a House Party reboot movie that was complete (unlike Batgirl), and unlike Batgirl it had a release date: July 28th. That’s gone now too, and who knows what’s going to happen with that – it’s probably completely gone. And only we knew about that too… some of us, at least.

No one else cared about it though… and I personally didn’t and don’t either, but that’s neither here nor there.

But yeah, what happened in the last couple of days with these cancellations will have zero affect on what Warner Bros. does in the future.

People will go and see the movies that they want to see. The company canceling something doesn’t factor into any of that. I mean, really… :laughing:

Are you not going to see an upcoming Warner Bros. movie that interest you because they cancelled Batgirl?

If so, then yeah, you frighten me. :smiling_face:

If WB/ Discovery is going to light hundreds of millions of dollars on fire for no reason, at least give us a bunch of DC Comics that few people will read.

DC Explosion 2023! Five hundred new mini series! Air Wave to Zatanna!

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@CaptainYesterday

If WB/ Discovery is going to light hundreds of millions of dollars on fire for no reason, at least give us a bunch of DC Comics that few people will read.

DC Explosion 2023! Five hundred new mini series! Air Wave to Zatanna!

Well, they’re not doing it for no reason. :smiling_face:

They’re doing it because they’re tens of billions of dollars in debt due to mismanagement or poor management from the previous owners of Warner Bros…

Anyway, a thought on the Static HBO Max movie:

They were working with Michael B. Jordan’s production company on it. And it has a writer and everything…

Being an HBO Max movie though probably kills it, because they’re probably no longer going to do those.

However, this…

The project has an urgency and agency surrounding it thanks to its heavy-hitting producers, who have stated an intention to build a cinematic universe centered around black superheroes.

If they are able to rework it and make it something that can go into the theater, then it may have a chance… maybe.

Because I think having a multiple-year and multiple-movie plan is what you’re going to have to have in order to make it work. The Milestone stuff needs it’s own 5-year, or 7-year, or 10-year plan.

And I feel that they have to do Static, and Icon and Rocket, and Hardware. And I feel they have to commit to that and state that ahead of time and communicate that to any potential audience.

Just doing Static alone and leaving it at… “we might do more, we might not”… I don’t know if that’s going to work. I think they have to have a plan. And of course, Warner Bros. has to commit to it too. And so that’s a hurdle that may be kind of tough to clear.

And Milestone I think is their best chance for diversity. Because DC has like John Stewart and not much of anything else. There’s of course other characters, but I don’t think any of them can be much more than secondary and tertiary characters in team movies.

Milestone characters I think can probably hold their own and headline their own movies. And that’s true diversity to me: being the star of your own movie. Just being in a movie is fine, but being the star is better. That’s next level, and that’s where you want to be.

Anyway, just a thought…