Warner Bros. Discovery has been through multiple altercations over the past two years since David Zaslav took over as the CEO of the studio. The studio canceled several projects as a tax write-off and cut off the content library on the streaming service HBO Max. It has also seen several box office failures over the past two years, including DC projects, with The Flash being one of the biggest box office bombs of all time.
The studio head has addressed the reason they have not been able to do that well, stating that they have not been able to fully utilize some of their most popular and successful franchises under their banner.
David Zaslav Claims Popular Franchises Are Underused at Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. is home to several big franchises, including DC, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings. The studio head, David Zaslav, has also admitted that these film series’ have heavily contributed to their success as he believes that Warner Bros. Discovery’s performance has been “relatively flat” without accounting for these film series. According to The Wrap,
“When you put those franchises in, it’s the best-performing studio in the world. We need to deploy our best capital, and we need to do it with the best creative people in the world.”
However, he also claimed that their IP has been “underused.” Zaslav discussed such issues during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference. According to The Wrap, the CEO stated that they had not done anything with Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, combined to be worth $15.3 billion, throughout the past years.
The wizarding world has continued to engage fans with the Fantastic Beasts film series and Hogwarts Legacy game. However, the studio has not released any Harry Potter project specifically based on J.K. Rowling’s original book series until the recently announced TV series.
David Zaslav Sees Potential in Long-Term Plans For These Franchises
Although the studio has been actively working on its superhero franchise over the years, the projects released under the DC banner have not been received very well. Along with several past movies, DC movies released this year have also failed to make it big at the box office.
Unlike DC, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings have been underutilized, and the studio head has shared that he believes that these franchises have the potential for long-term plans. He also shared that these could be very helpful for the studio to maximize its shareholder value. As per The Wrap
“We think there’s a lot of shareholder value in attaching a 10-year DC — a real plan around DC, bringing Harry Potter back to HBO for 10 consecutive years, doing multiple movies of Lord of the Rings.”
Warner Bros. has already announced a Harry Potter TV series and is also working on The Lord of the Rings animated movie, The War of the Rohirrim, which was recently delayed to be released in 2024. He stated that while these are “one of the big differentiators” of the studio, he also claimed that they would be careful not to overuse the content.
Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings is available on Max.
Source: The Wrap