Could This Win Back Warner Bros.’ Audiences After Recent Flops?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Warner Bros. has been doing some self-reflecting. After the newest Joker movie, JOKER: FOLIE À DEAUX flopped, the studio acknowledged that it needs “more consistency.”
“Even in an industry of hits and misses, we must acknowledge that our studio’s business must deliver more consistency,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said, evaluating the company’s standing with audiences. “It hasn’t been pretty on the gaming business. I think we have a reach chance now with a focus to have the gaming business be steadier.”
He continued, “For the past two years, we’ve been driving changes within our motion picture studio to improve green light governance and franchise management, which remain focal points going forward. This is a business where translating operational changes into results takes time, but I believe we’ll see those strategic shifts deliver improved outcomes in the coming years.”
Gunnat Wiedenfels, CFO of Warner Bros Discovery, is optimistic that the company can turn things around.
He told analysts, “I think we have a very sustainable, long term growth story ahead here for this studio. That’s especially when it comes to content. This is an area where we see the benefits of running this company on an integrated basis every day…We’ve made a ton of progress. We’re also still in the early innings, so we are definitely getting a return here from running WBD as one integrated company.”
In reality, though, what the studio really needs to deliver is movies without excessive content.
JOKER: FOLIE À DEAUX was riddled with “lots of strong, gratuitous foul language, a carnal love scene, and some extreme and disturbing violence,” turning most viewers away, as its abysmal box office returns showed.
READ MORE: JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX BOMBS, AND NOBODY SHOULD BE SURPRISED
Alternatively, movies that focus on more uplifting themes will always succeed.
As Movieguide® previously said, “family-friendly movies reflecting strong Christian, redemptive, moral, biblical, traditional, or conservative principles and values usually do significantly better at the box office in the United States and Canada than those movies that don’t have such strong content.”
