Apparently, David Zaslav believes all is well with James Gunn’s DCU. In fact, he’s just pretending “Supergirl” never existed.
Zaslav was asked about the future of DC during Thursday’s earnings call, but rather than address the disastrous box office performance of “Supergirl,” he focused on what’s next. “Supergirl,” which stands to lose Warners well over $100M, wasn’t mentioned a single time.
Zaslav deflected, praising James Gunn’s “Man of Tomorrow,” saying he had seen recent images that “looked amazing,” and also name-checked Matt Reeves’ “The Batman: Part II,” emphasizing that both filmmakers are “working hard.”
Zaslav also pointed to the rest of DC’s upcoming slate, including “Clayface” and HBO’s “Lanterns,” saying the studio has a “robust pipeline” and that Gunn and Peter Safran are “hard at work.” It was all praise for Gunn and Safran’s 10-year DC plan.
“Supergirl” is an increasingly difficult elephant to ignore. The Craig Gillespie-directed film, the second movie in Gunn and Safran’s rebooted DC universe following the successful “Superman,” was poorly received and grossed only $126M worldwide against a budget north of $170M. Some say the budget was $185M+.
It was justifiable insane for Gunn to greenlight a near-$200M production like this — which really speaks to the self-aggrandizing confidence he seems to have. Supergirl was never going to be a popular movie character, and the reviews sunk it even further.
So while Zaslav insists everything is going well, the pressure is clearly mounting after the “Supergirl” misfire. What do you do after such a disaster? Move on, I guess, and hope that “Clayface” and/or “Man of Tomorrow” save the day.
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