Since the stellar signing of James Gunn and Peter Safran by Warner Bros. Discovery was announced for take over the DC Studios label the hype and expectations have been directly proportional to the rumors about the direction the new DC Universe will take under the duo’s command. Luckily, even if it is little by little, the information that is arriving allows us to make a general idea of what they intend to do with the Distinguished Competition licenses.
A few days ago I told you that the basis of the plan was to create a shared universe in the purest Marvel style that would enhance the transmedia factor by telling a single story through movies, series, videogames, real action and animation. Now, thanks to the new statements from the head honcho of Warner Bros., David Zaslavwe can specify a little more.
goodbye to the multiverse
For Zaslav, the key to success is in the model of the house of ideas and in the connection of productions and characters within the same universe.
“[DC es] a tremendously undervalued asset. Disney did a wonderful job with Marvel. But if you had looked at Marvel and DC ten years ago, you would have said that DC was just as good or better. But Marvel is a connected universe. He has a ‘bible’. The key is to have one person following everything. All of Marvel is one place. You don’t wake up and find out there’s been a Batman show somewhere.”
And it seems that the crux of the matter is to forget about plurals and bet on the singular, since the CEO seems to have scrapped the multiverse idea. This can be deduced from the example that you have given referring to the various Batman that are currently in DC productions; specifically that of Michael Keaton, that of Ben Affleck and that of Robert Pattinson.
“DC is one of the great opportunities for this company. I think that in the next few years you will see a lot of growth and opportunity in DC, there will not be four Batmans. Part of our strategy is to make DC lose its mind, and James and James will do it. Peter. I think they’ve thrilled the fans. I think they’re going to thrill you for a season.”
The big screen on the small
Does this mean that they will discard independent films such as ‘The Batman’ or ‘Joker’ in the future to bet solely and exclusively on a cohesive narrative? Only time will tell. Yes indeed; what is not open to speculation is the priority that Zaslav gives to the traditional distribution model about streaming.
“I’ve seen the data… A movie that opens in theaters performs five times better than when it goes direct to streaming. [El modelo directo a streaming] it was just a way to boost subscribers and the share price. Subscribers today are like clicks in the ’90s.”
This preference is logical if we have the data you have shared; according to which HBO invested 2,500 million dollars in 2019 to raise exactly the same amount, as opposed to the last year in which it had losses of 3,000 million dollars after an investment of 7,000 in content; something that he attributes to the “weakness” of the ad market.
“Now we can have 30 million people with ‘Euphoria,’ but they can come for two months, watch ‘Euphoria,’ and then walk away. Do we want to create incentives for people to be there? There are a lot of companies that have businesses where the Most of the people are there all year round.
There is still a lot of fabric to cut in regards to to the future of Warner Bros. Discovery and its brand new DC Universebut do not doubt that we will be aware of any news about it.
Via | Deadline