The Warner Bros film division has had a rocky time – and it reportedly needs this summer’s Superman to be a hit in order to keep going.
As you’ll likely know, Warner Bros experienced an uneven 2024 at the box office, scoring some hits such as Dune: Part Two and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. But those successes were largely offset by dismal commercial performances of expensive projects such as Joker: Folie A Deux and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
As we move through 2025, the path ahead looks rockier for the studio given that it has bravely (and commendably) elected to invest in expensive, auteur-driven cinema. Ryan Coogler, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Paul Thomas Anderson and more have all been working on pricey projects that may or may not draw in audiences to match.
The studio’s first experiment of 2025 in this vein isn’t what you’d call a smash hit, commercially at least.
Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 has earned $45m from an estimated $118m budget. Throw in the film’s significant marketing costs as well and whilst Bong’s sci-fi satire might eventually creep into the black at some point down the line, it’s probably not going be a big win on the balance sheet for the studio.
According to a new report at Puck, the situation for Warner Bros may actually be worse than many imagine.
Read more: 10 major films that have been shelved or scrapped over the past decade
Reports have been circulating over the past week claiming that studio co-chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy will soon be ousted from their positions, but this latest claim suggests that the studio’s future health is dependent on the success of this summer’s Superman. An unnamed source claims ‘there is genuine fear that the studio will go the way of Fox’ if it doesn’t.
Of course, the death of another famous old studio is the last thing that anybody wants, and while it might seem far-fetched, the sad fate of 20th Century Fox offers a stark reminder that ultimately, the bottom line is always the prevailing factor in Hollywood. Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company that owns the studio, has been slashing costs left, right and centre over the past few years, while its CEO and serial film-deleter David Zaslav has already proven himself to be no friend of cinema.
Puck has a pretty good record at breaking these kinds of stories, and should it be the case that the studio is pinning that much hope on Superman: Legacy, that’s an awful lot of pressure to be working under. We hope that James Gunn, Peter Safran and everybody else working on the film are being shielded from the harm that can be inflicted when the burden of expectation is far too high.
We’ll bring you more on this story if and when more details emerge.
