Warner Bros. Launches DC Entertainment

Who knows whether or not this exact timing of this move was in the cards a couple weeks ago, but after Disney bought Marvel, this simply had to happen. And it has. Warner Bros., which has a kiss-your-cousin relationship with DC Comics because both companies operate under the Time-Warner banner, has formed a new film and entertainment company called DC Entertainment. Warner's Jeff Rubinov, who has become one of the best studio heads in the game at the moment, will now oversee the new company with Diane Nelson, who runs the rather essential Warner Premiere home video studio, which has released a lot of DC animated projects in the past few years, including Batman, Wonder woman, and Green Lantern movies. Rubinov has been trying to drag DC this direction for some time, and because outside of the second Batman movie, there really has been no competition on the commercial landscape between DC and Marvel in the past decade, a better organization with a specific purpose is exactly what The House that Superman Built needs. Below is part of the lengthy official statement from Warner and DC, from /film:

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI) has created DC Entertainment Inc., a new company founded to fully realize the power and value of the DC Comics brand and characters across all media and platforms, to be run by Diane Nelson, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, and Alan Horn, President & COO, Warner Bros. DC Entertainment, a separate division of WBEI, will be charged with strategically integrating the DC Comics business, brand and characters deeply into Warner Bros. Entertainment and all its content and distribution businesses. DC Entertainment, which will work with each of the Warner Bros. divisions, will also tap into the tremendous expertise the Studio has in building and sustaining franchises and prioritize DC properties as key titles and growth drivers across all of the Studio, including feature films, television, interactive entertainment, direct-to-consumer platforms and consumer products. The DC Comics publishing business will remain the cornerstone of DC Entertainment, releasing approximately 90 comic books through its various imprints and 30 graphic novels a month and continuing to build on its creative leadership in the comic book industry.

The only thing missing in this statement, of course, is the announcement of a big film to christen the new arrangement, whether that's the third Batman, another Superman, finally getting on the ball with Wonder Woman, something. Not having that ace in the hole kind of underscores the difference between Marvel movies and DC, because the competition has at least three years of movies, several of them linked to one major company-wide arc.

Comments

[efro]

an all IMAX Nolan batman?

[Get The Big Picture]

No way. It would cost about $350 million. It's a nice thought, but so is shooting a space movie on the moon.

[Eric]

Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds could be the first big one.

[Get The Big Picture]

Could be, but I don't like the winter release date. Seems an odd step for a $150 million superhero movie. I love Green Lantern and actually think he's one of the coolest characters either DC or Marvel has to offer, but doesn't necessarily equal movie success.

Reynolds is hot right now, but that's a fairly new development, too, so unless he remains on the radar for the next 14 months, I don't know how bankable he'd be on his own.

[anybody]

The most interesting development with this, besides the major names (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern) and the minors (Jonah Hex) in the DC universe, are the offshoot DC companies like Vertigo which include the Preacher and Y the Last Man runs (among others). So now its Marvel and Disney, DC and Warners and Dark Horse and Universal, interesting.