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During Warner Bros. Discovery's earnings call, CEO David Zaslav described “Joker 2″'s revenue as disappointing. Zaslav admitted that the company's performance had been inconsistent this year, pointing in particular to the film's unsatisfactory financial results.
Company executives confirmed that the performance of the latest film was below expectations, which may negatively affect the profits of the last quarter of the year. The company has incurred losses of more than $100 million related to the gaming division, and they explained that they intend to refocus on core investments and reduce the number of new movie releases.
Although “Joker 2” was released in October and grossed only $37.8 million over the weekend domestically, these numbers were less than half the revenues of the first part, which earned $96.2 million in its opening.
Zaslav's statements came in light of the financial challenges the company faced during 2023, as the films' performance was uneven. “Dune: Part 2” and “Godzilla vs. Kong” were huge successes, while “Furiosa: The Mad Max Story” failed to meet expectations, and “The Watchers” was severely criticized. As for films such as “Hurricane” and “Beetlejuice,” they recorded good profits, but they did not reach the level of success of the movie “Barbie,” which was released in the same period of the previous year.
The company revealed a decline in its net income, which reached $135 million, after it had recorded losses worth $417 million in the previous year. In contrast, Fox Corp., a smaller competitor, generated net income of $827 million last quarter, boosted by political ads related to the 2024 election that helped its local stations.
