In his quarterly earnings call with investors, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has put his weight behind superheroes. He specifically named Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Supergirl as the four key characters to carry the new DCU, and therefore a central pillar of Warner Bros. movie strategy.
Zaslav told investors and analysts that these four characters are the DCU’s “big asset builders”. As reported by CBM, he said:
“It’s important for us to be able to sell our content to third parties [but] as we look at our titles, there are many that are really just for Warner Bros.
When you look at the major characters with – that James Gunn and Peter Safran are developing with their ten-year plan around DC, that is to build asset value for us globally everywhere in the world, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Supergirl. So those are – we look at those as big asset builders and big differentiators.”
Superman and Supergirl are already set and coming fast. Batman: The Brave and the Bold is still in development. TV series Paradise Lost, set on the island of Themyscira, is also in the works. As for Wonder Woman herself, Gunn shared on social media that there is movement, but he is not ready to share things just yet.
Meanwhile, the figures are coming in on the Superman trailer and DC will be encouraged. The teaser eventually pulled in 250 million views and over a million social posts across all platforms. It was their most viewed and talked about trailer in the history of both DC and Warner Bros.
The new trailer is at 21.5 million views and 473,000 likes on the DC YouTube channel after three days. For context, The Fantastic Four: First Steps full trailer took more than a month to hit 19 million views and the same number of likes on the Marvel channel.
Very early tracking puts it ahead of previous Superman theatrical releases Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman.
Warner Bros. will be hoping these numbers hold up at July comes into view.
