In a big move for the studio and one that wasn’t necessarily surprising for people following DC Films and their slate, Warner Brothers has made a big move that was announced today.
In a move to restructure the beleaguered DC Films division, Warner Brothers has announced that Walter Hamada will be taking over as President of DC Films at the studio. The move comes a month after Justice League producer and Warner Brothers co-president of production Jon Berg was named a production partner for Roy Lee (IT, Lego Movie).
Hamada on the right with Aquaman Director James Wan
Hamada has had some great success recently from a business perspective as a production executive at New Line films helping produce hits like the Conjuring series, the Annabelle series and last year’s mega hit horror film IT, which came out post Labor Day. His success at ushering in a franchise worth $1.2 billion (The Conjuring series) with combined production costs under $82 million is definitely an attractive quality considering Justice League has yet to break even at under $700 million. IT is Hamada’s latest triumph for New Line and Warner Brothers taking in almost $700 million on a $35 million budget.
Hamada is expected to break from New Line completely and will oversee any and all Warner Brothers comic book movies both inside and outside DC Comics canon. Geoff Johns will stay on with DC Films in an “advisory” role much the same way he has with the television shows. Warner Brothers president Toby Emmerich made a statement in support of the move saying; “I’m confident Walter and Geoff, working with our filmmaking partners, will deliver films that will resonate with both broad global audiences as well as DC fanboys and fangirls. Walter’s a great addition to the Warner Brother’s Pictures team, and I look forward to working with him in his new post.”
An executive with a history of producing incredibly successful franchise films while keeping budget costs low might be just what DC Films needs going forward. Let me know what you think.
Video via: @CBNostalgia