Warner Bros. had a great year in 2018, with films such as Ready Player One, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Crazy Rich Asians earning decent amounts at the box-office and Aquaman becoming the studio’s billion dollar grossing movie in a long while. So huge is its success that it has reignited conversations around the studio’s DC Expanded Universe (or DCEU, as fans dubbed it). It appears though the studio is taking it easy and going one movie at a time, without really focusing on the shared universe game.
That’s simultaneously both, the refreshing and the disappointing news Warner Bros. Film Studio Chief Toby Emmerich had to share in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Emmerich finally conceded that DC plays differently than Marvel and admitted to the studio’s strategy of focusing more on standalone movies instead of building and strengthening their shared cinematic universe.
We all feel like we’ve turned a corner now. We’re playing by the DC playbook, which is very different than the Marvel playbook. We are far less focused on a shared universe. We take it one movie at a time. Each movie is its own equation and own creative entity. If you had to say one thing about us, it’s that it always has to be about the directors.
To be fair, it’s kind of inevitable that Warner Bros. focuses on standalone stories. Pretty much all their standalone efforts have done well (Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, Aquaman) than their non-standalone ones, sending a clear message to the studio. The upcoming Shazam too looks like it’ll pack a neat punch or two while both Joker and Wonder Woman 1984 is being highly anticipated. I do hope though that Warner Bros. does go back to making a Justice League movie sometime in the future, especially now that all the solo franchises are looking strong.
Emmerich also accepted that Disney-Fox is and will continue to be the No. 1 studio for a while now, given their vast library of content. That doesn’t deter the studio however, since they’re focused on making movies in a wide variety of genres from comedy and horror to superhero, tapping into current social issues through their projects, wherever possible. He gave an upfront response to this when asked about the studio’s goals for 2019.
They remain the same: to produce, market and distribute the most diverse slate we can and not play the Disney-Fox game. Disney-Fox will clearly remain the No. 1 studio. We’re highly focused on DC, on ramping up animation and on movies that contribute to the social conversation. We have a footprint in horror, and we don’t believe comedies are dead. We want to continue hitting all those genre buckets as well as nurture and birth new franchises.
The entire interview is worth a read and you can check it out through the sourcel link below. Are you looking forward to seeing the heroes come together after Justice League? Let us know what you feel of DC’s plans of avoiding the shared universe sandbox for now in the comments below and be sure to visit Appocalypse for your daily dose of entertainment.
