What do movie studio executives do these days when they stumble across a beloved franchise with a built-in fandom hungry for fresh new stories about their beloved characters?
That’s right, they go right to work building an entire cinematic universe out of it.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav wants to redeem his predecessors’ failure to rival Disney with its library of intellectual property through an unprecedented focus on tentpole events including Lord of the Rings, a series his New Line Cinema first developed into a critical smash-hit trilogy from Peter Jackson in 2001.
On Thursday, his company inked a deal to develop multiple feature films based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien that would expand upon the much-loved fantasy world of Middle-earth.
Zaslav is teaming up with Swedish gaming studio Embracer Group, which bought the company that owns the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s works last August.
“For all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex, and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film,” said Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy in a joint statement.
They are expected to complement rather than reboot the six previous Peter Jackson films, which earned nearly $6 billion combined in box office receipts worldwide.
The role model, as always, is Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Its revolutionary approach of weaving multiple independent story lines headlined by some of the biggest actors in Hollywood into one overarching tapestry redefined storytelling.
It made Marvel the biggest name in entertainment, with estimates suggesting its box office take easily surpassed $25 billion. No franchise has raked in more money.
Warner Bros. Discovery has tried and failed multiple times to accomplish a similar feat with its library of DC superheroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern—at best achieving mixed results.
Now it’s cribbing from Marvel’s script by rolling out a raft of new films and TV series across cinema and streaming all chaired by a Kevin Feige–like counterpart adopting a single vision.
It even poached a Marvel creator, James Gunn, to fill that key creative role.
Zaslav’s ‘year of building’
The rollout of its grand strategy began with a well-received newGame of Thronesprequel series, followed up by the launch of a hugely successful Harry Potter–themed game ($850 million in retail sales to date after less than one month).
Zaslav then announced his plans Thursday to go big by expanding upon Tolkien’s world.
For Warner Bros. Discovery, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Zaslav’s company is saddled with $45 billion of debt net of cash in the till and it just suffered a net loss of $7.4 billion last year amid heavy write-downs related to the April 2022 merger.
But the CEO urged investors to forget about the past, arguing the bulk of restructuring is now behind it, allowing 2023 to be “a year of building.”
Warner Bros. Studios alone plans to double its output.
“We have a treasury that no one else has,” he told investors on Thursday’s earnings call, adding “Lord of the Rings is one of the most iconic storytelling franchises of all time.”
It is however a daunting task and one in which Amazon tried and arguably failed with its Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series developed for Prime Video, the most expensive in TV history.
The series generated more buzz over its casting choices than a compelling story line.
The first season received a 38% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and failed to garner so much as a single Golden Globe nomination.
Zaslav acknowledged Amazon’s competing attempt to cash in on the franchise but seemed undeterred.
For him, the three Warner Bros. franchises of DC Comics, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings offer the kind of event entertainment that gets people worldwide to stop whatever they’re doing in the moment to sit down and watch their favorite characters.
“In every country, they’ll leave dinner and go home to view that product that they love,” the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO told investors. “It gives a huge advantage with those tentpoles.”
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