It looks like DC Studios is safe for now in the Skydance/WarnerMount merger. Not only have co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran been asked to stay on, they will report directly to Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz.
The DC Studio team met with Ellison last Thursday Borys Kit reports:
Multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the duo met with Ellison in person Thursday and that the meeting was positive. The pair were asked to stay and “keep doing what you’re doing,” per one source.
Yesterday the executive structure for Skydance was announced, with Gunn and Safran as direct reports – this mirrors DC Studios’ position under Warner Bros. Discovery, where they reported directly to David Zaslav, while still working closely with now ousted Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy.
Conclusion: when you run a studio or two, you get to meddle with the superheroes DIRECTLY!
DC’s importance to the new Skydance behemoth was made immediately clear just with the graphic announcing the new venture:
Holy shit! It’s right up there above the line with Paramount and WB! That’s how important DC is!
The import of this lofty position becomes even more impactful when viewed over the entire logo universe:
That graphic also remind you of now many wonderful brands that created so much great stuff are now about to be subject to $6 billion in needed cuts. Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Adult Swim…the whole animation universe aside from Disney. Animal Planet….don’t you touch my Cub Camp, David Ellison!
Anyway back to DC. The always reliable Kit sees this as good news for DC Comics:
The DC logo appearance is also good news for DC Comics, which in the last two years has seen an turnaround in which the publisher has overtaken sales and marketshare from rival Marvel Comics for the first time in decades. That is thanks to the new Absolute Universe imprint and a focus on rebuilding creator relationships.
In the past several years, there have been blips of rumors that Warner Bros. Discovery wanted to sell off the division, which WBD head David Zaslav never did. The likelihood of that is even less now. “It’s an IP generator,” says one source with knowledge of the workings of DC and comics world.
Comics, the home of cheap IP, beloved to entertainment moguls everywhere.
While for the moment this seems like good news – Skydance ABSOLUTELY needs hits like Superman, Batman and Lanterns and they’d be foolish to upset the apple cart – it does leave Gunn and Safran quite exposed to their new overlords. Their five year contract runs out in 2027, and Man of Tomorrow needs to be a hit.
As for DC Comics, how it fit into the previous WBD corporate structure is surprisingly murky. Back in late 2023, DC Comics was under Global Brands, Franchises, and Experiences, run by the other Bruce Campbell, and Robert Oberschelp, Head of Global Consumer Products. DC Comics is run by General Manager Anne Leung DePies and many titles Jim Lee, but who they currently report to has not been mentioned publicly.
I’ve been told anecdotally by observers that DC Comics is part of DC Studios, but not in a way that’s official enough for me. I guess I need to investigate this more fully at NYCC. At any rate, Gunn is a big comics supporter, just like Marvel’s Kevin Feige, and for now turning out more cheap IP is a priority.
However….no one is out of the woods. As Matthew Belloni said in today’s What I’m Hearing, Skydance/WarnerMount now staggers out of the water, bedraggled by a massive debt and the need to cut cut cut.
But… the reality is that despite the two legacy studios, the three global streaming services, and the dozens and dozens of cable TV networks, this is not primarily a media company, really. It’s first and foremost a debt-service vehicle, with some $79 billion in net debt, according to Skydance’s own numbers. And for the foreseeable future, Ellison & Co. will need to operate with the singular goal of paying it all down. Every movie greenlight, series renewal, sports rights bid … How does this impact the debt? When the revenue and profit projections inevitably weaken, as happened almost immediately after the 2022 merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, what can be sacrificed?
The DC characters will certainly remain a crown jewel for whatever structure emerges, but it’s going to be a wild adventure for quite some time.
