The final part of SSN’s weeklong Warner Bros. analysis takes a look at the future.
While new Warner CEO Kevin Tsujihara is keen to put his own stamp on the company’s output, the release schedule for 2014 has already taken shape, dominated by titles greenlit by former film division chief Jeff Robinov. The films in production are lining up to hit theaters over the next 18 months or so.
What’s clearly a part of Tsujihara’s plan—and it’s something Robinov was never quite able to master—is a scheme regarding one of Warner’s biggest properties—the heroes of DC Comics. Lagging behind market leader Marvel Entertainment for so long has had studio execs smarting, so the fact that Man of Steel did so well and that the Superman-Batman movie is on the slate, both represent substantial steps in the right direction.
At this time, 16 movies are firmly on Warner’s 2014 release schedule with several more to be added that are in production or will be wrapped by year’s end. Among the prospective offerings, there’s no shortage of big-budget fare, keeping with the studio’s largely successful “spend big-bet big” philosophy. While there are no guarantees, all signs point to an increase in output in 2014, even if that amounts to only a movie or two over the 18 on this year’s slate.
Unlike this year, in which Warner deposited the troubled Gangster Squad into theaters during the dead of January, the studio’s 2014 slate doesn’t start officially until February 7 when The Lego Movie (co-financed by Village Roadshow) opens and almost certainly draws millions of families. It’s shrewd counter programming as Sony is putting its Robocop reboot into theaters that same day. With moviegoers starving for something fresh after a sure-to-be-slow January, The Lego Movie isn’t a bad choice to jumpstart the year.
And the studio isn’t wasting any time getting its next entry on screens—a week later, the long-awaited fantasy Winter’s Tale from Akiva Goldsman and starring an impressive cast featuring Will Smith and Russell Crowe hits screens. Three weeks later, the sequel to the movie that made Zack Snyder a marquee director, 300: Rise of an Empire (co-financed by Legendary), debuts at the multiplex. Just as the biggest name in 300 was a then-fairly-unknown Gerard Butler, the sequel isn’t bursting with recognizable stars either. As with its predecessor, the real star of Rise of an Empire is the concept itself.
March 21 is the tentative release date for one of the most interesting movies on the spring schedule—and one that didn’t cost the studio a dime to produce—the Kickstarter-funded Veronica Mars. After years of lobbying, Mars creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell finally got Warner Bros. Digital to agree to release the movie if Thomas and Bell could raise the minimum $2 million budget on Kickstarter. They raised it on the first day, spawning a whole new movement of established filmmakers going to their respective fanbases for money. While the Mars crowdfunding example is the most celebrated, similar campaigns by Zack Braff and Spike Lee also met with success—and their share of backlash and controversy. Regardless, Mars set the stage for crowdfunding as a vital part of today’s new media economy. Ultimately, Warner’s commitment to Mars will amount only to a few million dollars for P&A—a drop in the bucket considering the movie is set to do solid business.
Things really gear up with the April 18 release of the $100 million sci-fi Transcendence (an Alcon financed film), the directorial debut of legendary cinematographer Wally Pfister and starring Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman. The release enjoys choice placement on the calendar, coming two weeks after Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and two weeks before Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man sequel. That gives Transcendence wide berth between two heavyweight franchises to build up box office before Spider-Man kicks off the summer season. In the unlikely event that Warner Bros. begins 2014 the way it did 2013—i.e., poorly—Transcendence promises to shake the studio out of any doldrums it might suffer in the first quarter.
Warner’s 2014 summer will get off to a roaring start. It’s got three major releases in four weeks, leading up to, on and following Memorial Day Weekend. The Godzilla reboot (with Legendary) stomps into multiplexes on May 16 followed by The Familymoon (with Village Roadshow), Adam Sandler’s first film for Warner Bros. since his Little Nicky flopped for New Line in 2000. The romantic comedy, co-starring Drew Barrymore, is another good example of counter programming as the competing Memorial Day release is Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Of course, that could spell a repeat of this year’s folly in which the studio pitted The Hangover III against Fast & Furious 6. But the argument could be made that those two films catered more or less to the same audience, whereas the target audiences for the Sandler vehicle and the X-Men flick are widely divergent. Either way, it will be a gamble.
Two weeks later, on June 6, Tom Cruise returns to theaters in the sci-fi action thriller, Edge of Tomorrow. Its prospects look good right now since it’s currently the only major release set for that day.
And after the sixth day (of June), Warner’s will rest … until the Fourth of July Weekend when it releases the latest from America’s newest sweetheart, Melissa McCarthy, who directs and stars in New Line’s Tammy. The road comedy co-stars Susan Sarandon.
Things pick up again at the end of July when the Wachowskis return with their space epic Jupiter Ascending. It will be the studio’s last big hoorah of summer 2014 as the Channing Tatum/Mila Kunis vehicle faces off against Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules: The Thracian Wars. Currently, it’s the only weekend all summer when two big budget action/adventure movies are going head to head—a departure from 2013 when virtually every weekend after mid-May involved a big-budget match-up. New Line also releases their tornado thriller, Into the Storm, on August 8.
The remainder of the year includes the Dolphin Tale (Alcon) sequel on September 19, the Robert Downey Jr. vehicle The Judge (with Village Roadshow) in October, Christopher Nolan’s new epic Interstellar in November (a co-production with Paramount, which will handle domestic distribution while Warner will handle foreign), New Line’s Horrible Bosses sequel the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the third and final installment in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit saga—also from New Line and MGM—on December 17. That’s 14 flicks in all, but this being Warner and there being ample available release windows on its 2014 schedule, expect lots more.
Films that have already wrapped vary from the $20-million, star-studded adaptation This Is Where I Leave You to the $100 million franchise reboot Mad Max: Fury Road. In between are the Paul Thomas Anderson adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut How to Catch a Monster and the low-budget horror flick Hidden.
That’s nine movies, which, if all are released next year, would bring the total to 23. Just for kicks, let’s throw in titles that are either currently in production or are about to start filming: Ron Howard’s 19th-century whaling adventure Heart of the Sea, Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys adaptation, the Will Smith vehicle Focus, the Liam Neeson-Ed Harris thriller Run All Night and Guy Ritchie’s long-gestating The Man From U.N.C.L.E. That bumps the total to 28 pictures, which seems excessive considering the studio has trended toward fewer releases in recent years.
Taking into account that the only movie currently on the 2015 slate is the Superman-Batman movie (more on that below), one would have to presume that a good half-dozen of these projects will be pushed to a 2015 time-frame. If that’s how it shakes out, expect roughly 20 movies from the studio in 2014, and a fairly impressive roster of projects ready for market the year following.
The studio’s new plan for its DC Universe kicks off with the Superman-Batman movie, which will re-introduce Batman—to be played by (did you hear?) Ben Affleck. But what happens after that? Rumor has it we’ll see a Flash movie in 2016 and the long-awaited Justice League movie the year after that. But there have been so many false starts and so many over eager fans predicting release dates involving the DC characters over the years, it’s probably best to wait until a writer, director and star are actually attached to these latter projects before anyone gets their hopes up.
The wealth to be mined from the DC characters is seemingly endless. Aside from the long-gestating but likely never-to-materialize (despite Tsujihara’s recent comments to the contrary) Wonder Woman, there are also projects involving Adam Strange, Aquaman, Captain Marvel (aka Shazam!), Deadman, Green Arrow, a Green Lantern sequel, Hawkman, Metal Men, the New Gods, Suicide Squad, Teen Titans and the Wonder Twins(!). The fact that Marvel has done it so well while Warner has failed must be an enormous thorn in the studio’s proverbial side, so it’s only logical that some attempt will be made to emulate Marvel’s success.
Beyond that, though, Warner is certainly hoping for its next franchise. Harry Potter finished up in 2011, Nolan’s Batman series did so last year, The Hobbit ends next year. There is a third Sherlock Holmes in development but not likely to reach theaters any time soon—especially since director Guy Ritchie is helming The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which has all the earmarks of becoming a potential franchise in its own right. (That, and the fact that Robert Downey Jr. has more than a dozen movies on his docket over the next few years.) According to Studio System, of the approximately 100-200 films considered in “active” development, only 25 are remakes, re-imaginings or sequels. Most of the properties, therefore, are new, either spec scripts and pitches, or adaptations of books, comics and other published materials. Among those latter properties are book series like Chris Weitz’s Young World trilogy, Steve Kloves’ adaption of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, the Vertigo and Autonomous Films produced version of Dungeons and Dragons, and J.K. Rowling’s Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
According to Studio System, Warner and New Line have been extremely active in the spec and pitch market over the last two-and-a-half years, having purchased more than 70 properties. Four of these have either been released or are on next year’s schedule, three have been put into turnaround, but an amazing 31 are in active development
With the myriad of purchases and the money being thrown at developing so many properties — and working regularly with A-list writers like The Mulroneys, Dan Fogelman, Chris Terrio, Steve Kloves, Chad St. John and John Requa and Glenn Ficarra — it’s pretty clear that Warner’s overall strategy of releasing a bunch of movies and spending a alot of money doing it is in no danger of ending any time soon. It was in place before Jeff Robinov came along, and appears as if it will be in place as long as Kevin Tsujihara is calling the shots. And, as long as the studio is at or near the top, no one will be asking any questions, but if it should falter, what with all the changes and restructuring that has happened, everyone will know where to look to cast the blame.
NEXT: Paramount is in the on-deck circle. We’ll discuss why the sixth-place studio’s year has not been nearly as bad as you might think.
Warner Bros. Studio Analysis Series:
Part One: Evaluating Warner Bros.’ Magical Past
Part Two: Warner Bros. Defies ‘Gravity’ in 2013
Part Three: Warner Bros. Settles into its New Executive Structure