Warner Bros. Discovery CEO says DC movies will have a 10-year plan 'very similar' to Marvel Studios moving forward

• Warner Bros. is going to focus on coming up with a 10-year film plan for its DC characters.
• Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made the comments during a Q2 earnings call for the company.

Warner Bros. will finally work on a 10-year strategy to better serve its beloved DC characters inspired by Disney's successful Marvel Studios machine.

During Warner Bros. Discovery's Q2 earnings call on Thursday afternoon, CEO David Zaslav was asked about the recent cancelation of the "Batgirl" film, despite being near completion and the direction in which he'll be taking the DC Universe.

"Our ambition is to bring Warner back and to produce great, high-quality films," Zaslav said during the Q&A part of the earnings call. "As we look at the opportunities that we have, broadly, DC is one of the top of the list for us."

Zaslav specifically noted Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman are all popular characters that offer a "big opportunity" for the company.

"We have done a reset," Zaslav said of DC at Warner Bros. "We've restructured the business where there will be a team with a 10-year plan focusing just on DC. It's very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney."

Over the past decade, Marvel Studios has rolled out theatrical hit after hit. Three of its films are currently among the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time. At one point, "Avengers: Endgame" was the highest-grossing movie of all time.

DC's highest-grossing movie, 2018's "Aquaman," is the 25th highest-grossing movie of all time.

He added: "We think that we could build a long-term, much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC. And as part of that, we're gonna focus on quality. We're not gonna release any film before it's ready. We're not gonna release a film to make a quarter. The focus is gonna be, 'How do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible?'"

Recently, WBD hired former Walt Disney Studios' chairman Alan Horn in a consulting role.

Prior to his decade-long tenure at Disney, Horn oversaw the success of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" trilogy along with the "Harry Potter" franchise.

"DC is something that we think we could make better and we're focused on it now," Zaslav added, noting that they're still releasing Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's "Black Adam" along with "The Flash" and the "Shazam" sequel.

Without naming "Batgirl," Zaslav said that after studying how direct-to-streaming movies perform, their conclusion is that there "is no comparison to what happens when you launch a film in the theaters."

"This idea of expensive films going direct to streaming, we cannot find an economic case for it," Zaslav added. "We can't find an economic value for it. So we're making a strategic shift. We've been out in the town talking about our commitment to the theatrical exhibition and the theatrical window."

Zaslav later added: "The objective is to grow the DC brand, to grow the DC characters, but also, our job is to protect the DC brand and that's what we're gonna do."

"Batgirl" reportedly cost $90 million to make.

For those who are frustrated about the loss of a "Batgirl" film, WB has been releasing DC films that have felt more singular and disparate than united ("Joker," which has a sequel set for 2024 with Joaquin Phoneix and Lady Gaga, is not connected to anything else in the DC universe).

It sounds like WBD is finally looking to course correct with a reset after its next releases.

Or in Zaslav's words: "The objective is to grow the DC brand, to grow the DC characters, but also, our job is to protect the DC brand and that's what we're gonna do."