Warner Bros. reboots DC Comics in bid to rival Marvel on big screen

Warner Bros. is hoping to bring some Harry Potter magic to its DC Comics brand.

Sick of being second banana to comic book competitor Marvel Entertainment in the movie world, the studio has brought DC in-house and appointed Diane Nelson, a brand management executive who has overseen the Harry Potter franchise since 2000 to run the unit.

Along with the move, Warner Bros. is changing DC Comics' corporate name to mirror that of its rival. The division will now be known as DC Entertainment.

While Warner's move has been long rumored in Hollywood, it comes just a week after Walt Disney Co. agreed to acquire Marvel for $4 billion.

Warner is hoping Nelson will be able to duplicate Harry Potter's amazing track record with DC's rich library of characters across movies, television, video games, the Web and consumer products. The Potter franchise, the most successful in the studio's history, has generated more than $5.4 billion in worldwide box office and billions more from DVDs, video games and other markets.

DC Entertainment will be a separate division of the studio, with Nelson reporting to Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov.

While rival Marvel has turned super heroes including Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men into big screen juggernauts, the only DC hero with a hit series of films in the last decade has been Batman. "The Dark Knight" generated more than $1 billion in worldwide box office, while "Batman Begins" grossed $373 million. However, March's "Watchmen" was a disappointment, 2006's costly "Superman Returns" wasn't successful enough to merit a sequel, and 2004's "Catwoman" was a major flop.

DC Comics' predecessor company began publishing in 1935 and launched the super hero phenomenon, which came to define the medium, when Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 in 1938. The late media mogul Steve Ross acquired DC in 1968. The next year he bought Warners' then-parent company Warner Communication and folded DC into it.

Warner currently has several DC projects in development as movies, including "The Green Lantern," starring Ryan Reynolds, which the studio hopes will be its next super-hero tent pole when released in 2011. Other movies include "Jonah Hex," a supernatural western that just completed production; "The Losers," which started shooting in July; and "Lobo," based on the space-faring anti-hero. It also recently released a direct-to-DVD animated movie about Green Lantern and video game starring Batman. A television series based on DC's "The Human Target" is on the Fox network's mid-season schedule.

As part of the corporate reshuffling, DC's longtime publisher Paul Levitz, who has been with the company since the 1970s and became president in 2002, is stepping aside to become a consultant. He will also serve as a contributing editor and continue writing comic books, which he has done for his entire career.

The news of Warner Bros.' move was first reported on Deadline Hollywood.

Update (Sep. 10, 12:55 AM): For much more on the reasons behind and implications of Warner Bros' shake-up of DC Comics, read the story in today's Times.

-- Claudia Eller and Ben Fritz

Image: DC Comics logo. Credit: Warner Bros.

Photo: Christian Bale in "The Dark Knight." Credit: Stephen Vaughan / Warner Bros.

Comments

[rem06513]

I was hoping to hear some news on a sequel for Superman Returns. I thought it was very well done.

[screwer]

now since marvel comics is being acquired by another comic giant disney... i am awaiting the new strategy if DC comics. head-on with 'em must say!!

[BW]

2006's costly "Superman Returns" wasn't successful enough to merit a sequel"

Are you kidding? There are lots of WORSE movies that sequels were made from them. Hollywood will beat a dead horse.

[Dr. K]

It's time for DC to get Superman right. The miscasting has to stop. This is the greatest hero the world has ever known, and Smallville proves that it is possible to tell stories about him that engage the audience and deliver strong interest. Get this one thing right and their whole stable of heroes becomes more attractive. (Wonder Woman is another natural for a big movie, as is the Flash)

[Peter Lee]

I'm sorry but why does this piece adopt the viewpoint that DC Comics is the responsible for the relative failure - compared to Marvel - to spin movie gold out of its characters? It's Warner Brothers that has dithered and played the Hamlet, constantly changing its mind and consigning Batman and Superman to 9 circles of development hell. How many writers and directors did those projects have before they were finally put into production? Who hired and fired all of them? Not DC. And while Batman was successful, credit goes to Chris Nolan, not Warner. Look at Warner's nitpicking with Superman Returns: after all the personnel and script changes, what script did they settle on? One that stole its plot from the original Superman movie, i.e. Lex Luthor schemes to trigger a seismic catastrophe to launch his real estate scheme! Wow, remaking a movie with virtually the same story was a brilliant reboot!

Sorry, but if Warner Brothers want to blame someone for its poor movie development process, it should find the nearest mirror. DC Comics is not to blame. Warner is.

[TJ]

I disagree that Watchmen was a disappointment the movie budget was $130 million, the movie grossed $185 million BEFORE dvd sales. So if 55 million in profit is a disappointment what do you consider to be a success? A billion? And you guys work for the LA Times? No wonder your readers are down.

[Sophie]

Marvel > DC . Batman notwithstanding.

[Benny]

For the La times Watchmen made so much blu ray and DVD sales. The DVD alone made consumers spend 41 million in total plus watchmen set a new blu ray standard with a 36% sales record breaking launch date i mean it beat TDK by 6% no easy feat and plus it already had a 55 million profit world wide plus 80 million its 130 they made 130 again so they pretty much wasted 130 mil to make 130 million in total so seems like they double their investment. Also superman returns made its 200 million profit with DVD's and the story was perfect for a sequel LA times do not talk about comics leave it for the fan boys and dont bash things just gives us the percentages you leave the rest to us

[John]

@Peter Lee - Warner is not blaming DC. It's restructuring to maximize it's revenues in all platforms, not only with the movie division. So, with a experienced executive now in charge, we can expected more adaptations in the coming years. And Batman's successuful goes to WB also, afteral they hire Nolan to direct. I myself much prefer the way they are development the movies from DC brand compared to the Marvel system. Of all movies from Marvel, only the first two Spider, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man are quality ones. With DC we have Begins and TDK, Watchmen along with the adaptations of the Vertigo. Less products, bur more quality. Now with more, I expected the quality to be continued.

@TJ - The studio only make 50-55% of box office gross in theaters. And in the $130 million budget they are not including prints and advertising, with for a big tentpole title it's a considerable part of the costs. It will ultmately make the money back, but with the big tentpoles they want a larger profit from all divisions. Just see why they are all so happy about TDK, with 1 billion in theaters more being the studio 1st or 2nd best DVD saler of all time, whitout counting the toys, merchandising and TV rights that are going too generate more millions of dollars for WB. That's why they are waiting paciently for Nolan's comeback with a great history for the third Batman.

@Benny - Watchmen Bluray did not beat the TDK sales. Not come even close. TDK is estimated to be already sold more than 3.5 million Bluray discs worldwide. In percentage wise it did beat, but in overall number of units sold not.

In the case of Superman Returns, it did have the budget of $200 million more the years of development before and the huge marketing campaing. So it is suppose to have paid itself, but did not generate any larger profit. And with the reception being not so good compared to Batman Begins, a sequel is a no-go.

[PETE]

superman returns ... boring ...weak script
watchmen...too long and overkill...they should made 2 movies
batman begins...really good prequel
dark knight...awesome heath ledger R.I.P.
cat woman...really bad
What about Super boy,Super girl,Swamp thing ???

[Paul]

Why is so hard to launch a superhero movie, i.e., Wonder Woman - geeze guys, DC has to overthink everything and seems to be only film one film at a time -- I mean honestly - you start out with the WW origin (heck, use the updated version from Perez in 1986 to keep it contemporary), maybe have some World War II action -- then movie it into the present day...not that hard!

Anyways -- they should have brought the movies in-house years ago -- Marvel has been chucking out movies left and right.

Oh - and the latest slate of movies? Garbage! No one will care - "The Losers?" ---who? "Human Target" (tv) -- what? "Jonah Hex" and "Lobo"? Yawn - all will flop miserably.