Warner Bros., the legacy studio behind old and modern classics likeCasablanca,The Searchers,Goodfellas,The Dark Knight, and theHarry Potter movies, has somehow become, at the very best, a laughingstock in the industry in the last year, and even worse, a detriment to the viability of film and their cultural impact. Warner Bros. Discovery’s leadership underDavid Zaslavhas highlighted the worsening effects of extensive corporate control on Hollywood in the era of “content.“Perhaps a sign of karma for their disservice to cinema as an art form, the studio’s 2024 and the first months of 2025 have been defined by a litany ofbox office disappointments and flops. At this point, the discussion of anew head of the film division at Warner Bros.is the least bit of shocking news.
Warner Bros. Executives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy Are in a Tough Spot
This report byBloombergindicates that studio headsMichael De LucaandPamela Abdy’s jobs are in jeopardy. These talks, however, are"at an early and informal stage,” and no decision regarding their fate is final. Between tepid box office returns, unwarranted media controversy surroundingtentpole releases likeSnow White, and the general concerns surrounding movies' place in culture, the industry is in a constant state of panic. This decision to boot two respected executives who have exciting films in 2025 on the docket, includingPaul Thomas Anderson’sOne Battle After Another, would confirm the precarious state of the business. De Luca is feeling the pressure,tellingVarietythat he and Abdy “didn’t want to fail” Zaslav.
Unfortunately,De Luca and Abdy might be forced to take the fallfor WB’s calamitous streak of financial flops. SinceBarbie, Warner Bros. has failed to invigorate the public with ambitious projects likeFuriosa: A Mad Max SagaandKevin Costner’sHorizon: An American Saga—the latter of which flopped so hard thatsubsequent chapters have been indefinitely sidelined. Nothing compares to the belly-flop and aggressive audience dismissal ofJoker: Folie à Deux, which has become a shorthand for cinematic folly, so much so that it was the subject of a joke at the Academy Awards. The studio was in the desirable position of havingBong Joon Ho, still red-hot off the success ofParasite, working for them on a big-budget and grand scale, butMickey 17quickly fizzled in theaters.
If there’s one movie that crystalizes the recent failings at Warner Bros and their perplexing business strategies, it is therecently released bomb,The Alto Knights. On paper, aRobert De Niro-led gangster picture, a genre closely associated with WB going back to Pre-Code Hollywood, written byNicholas Pileggiand directed byBarry Levinson, would’ve been a slam dunk if released 30 years ago. Grossing a slim $9 million on a reported budget of $50 million,Alto Knightswas also critically derided. The trailers alone indicated that the final product was pastiche, staid, and something nobody asked for.
The same studio that releasedClint Eastwood’s presumably final film,Juror #2, in a paltry 50 theaters, decided thatThe Alto Knights, directed by someone who hasn’t made a theatrically released movie in a decade, was worthy of a wide release. What’s the logic behind that? Well, the film, apassion project for the CEO, was supposedly greenlit by Zaslav as a favor to his friend, producerIrwin Winkler.Despite warnings of a potential flop, Zaslav went ahead anyway and releasedThe Alto Knights.In a vacuum, art taking precedence over commercial value is ideal, but it only shines a light on the studio’s glaring hypocrisy. Zaslav only looked atJuror #2from a business executive’s lens and buried the film, showing no sentimentality towards Eastwood, who has been their most iconic movie star and director for 50 years.
With ‘Juror #2,’ Clint Eastwood Spends His Last Movie Firing at an Old Target
Justice is not blind in Eastwood’s alleged final film.
For Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy,funding auteur swings likeMickey 17, the upcomingOne Battle After AnotherandRyan Coogler’sSinnersis the right mindset for artistically creative executives. Unfortunately, regardless of who their boss is, running a movie studio in 2025 is an unenviable position,as the struggling box office indicates that there is a mass audience wholly disinterested in going to the theaters. With their emphasis on building up streamers and limiting the theatrical window, the studios are partially to blame for this ongoing industry crisis. In an age where anyone can watch any high-quality video at home or on their phone, there is little exclusivity to what any studio offers, let alone a historical institution like Warner Bros. Facing up against these insurmountable odds explains why studios have made bizarre, desperate, and seemingly anti-art business decisions.
A sequel toJoker, a blank check for Bong Joon Ho, and a Robert De Niro star vehicle all seem like financially sound decisions for a studio, but none of these films clicked with viewers, and even a film with positive reviews likeFuriosacan’t draw a mass audience. It’s easy to blame De Luca and Abdy for the studio’s undoing, but there seems to be little hope in turning mid-budget, adult, original, auteur-driven cinema into a profitable enterprise. If anything, we should commend them for trying to vitalize a theatrical landscape overrun with sequels and IP.
The Alto Knights
The Alto Knights depicts the rivalry between two infamous New York crime bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Formerly close allies, their friendship unravels due to jealousy and betrayal, igniting a violent power struggle. Their conflict not only alters the dynamics of the Mafia but also leaves a lasting impact on American history at large.
