Warner Bros. is particularly known for its releases in the gaming and film sectors. Financially, the company faced several setbacks last year. The CEO explains the situation.
How is Warner Bros doing? The company has had little luck with its releases this year. In the gaming sector, titles such as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and the fighting game MultiVersus were released. The former is a superhero game with a live-service model and disappointed fans, rating it 3.4 out of 10 on Metacritic. According to CEO David Zaslav, MultiVersus is a financial failure.
In the film sector, the sequel to Joker was released, but here too the hoped-for hit did not materialize. The film premiered in Germany on October 4, 2024, and has barely recouped its high budget of around $200 million so far (as of 07.11.2024, via boxofficemojo.com). In Hollywood, a film must gross at least double its budget to be considered a success.
Warner Bros. is therefore having a tough year. David Zaslav explained in a conference on the third quarter of 2024 why the company is currently facing such difficulties.
The company is underperforming
What does the CEO say? According to Zaslav, the gaming sector “is particularly underperforming” (via theverge.com). The company is not consistently successful. This has led to Warner Bros. Games generating about 31% less revenue from July to September 2024 compared to the previous year.
The company’s CFO, Gunnar Wiedenfels, also stated to IGN:
We had to incur another impairment of over $100 million due to the underperforming releases, especially MultiVersus, in this quarter, bringing the total write-down in our gaming business since the beginning of the year to over $300 million, a major factor in the studio’s profit decline this year.
Gunnar Wiedenfels via ign.com
In 2023, Warner Bros. celebrated a significant success with Hogwarts Legacy. According to statista.com, the game sold around 30 million copies worldwide – and is not a live-service game. Unlike Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. This game was part of the efforts to double this gaming sector. That the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was disappointing is clear.
What does Warner Bros. want to do now? A sequel to Hogwarts Legacy is already in development, and a series about Harry Potter is also set to be released. Additionally, the company is considering licensing its intellectual property to third-party studios.
According to Zaslav, 11 studios are working for Warner Bros., but many more are interested in the licenses. Whether such a resurgence can happen remains to be seen. Nevertheless, Suicide Squad will continue, even though there are currently hardly any players online: Suicide Squad is bringing a third season – for barely 300 players on Steam
