What a difference a year can make.
At last year’s edition of CinemaCon, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy exuded confidence when taking the stage before thousands of excited cinema owners eager to hear from the studio behind Barbie (they inherited the project when arriving at the Burbank lot from MGM in summer 2022, but marketed and released the defining blockbuster).
This year— and nearly three years into the job — dark clouds hang over the duo after a string of high-profile misfires, including Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17, which is by far the most expensive movie the Oscar-winning Parasite filmmaker has made at a budget hovering around $118 million before marketing. Released in theaters earlier this month, the film has earned just $43 million domestically and $121.5 million globally. Mickey 17 is symbolic of Abdy and De Luca’s commitment to working with auteurs and turning out original fare, versus focusing solely on traditional tentpoles.
But their boss, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, is said to be increasingly concerned with developing big IP. He is also said to be unhappy with the amount of money the two are spending on these filmmaker-driven projects.
Abdy and De Luca, who have worked in Hollywood for decades, weren’t about to let the gloom-and-doom headlines about their professional future stop them from appearing at CinemaCon to tout their upcoming films. And while they definitely side-stepped any mention of the strife underway on the Warners lot, they were nevertheless appeared more nervous than their last two turns on stage at the annual gathering in Las Vegas.
“Next year, I’ll do the harder names,” De Luca assured Abdy after she stumbled over her words when reading the teleprompter.
The mood in the audience was also notably subdued during parts of De Luca and Abdy’s presentation — even when one of the world’s biggest stars, Leonardo DiCaprio, joined them on stage to promote Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. DiCaprio was flanked by co-stars Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor.
One Battle After Another, which opens this fall, cost as much as $150 million to make, by far the biggest budget of Anderson’s career.
Another project that is a big gamble for De Luca and Abdy is Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which opens late next month on April 18. The supernatural horror pic cost $80 million to $90 million to produce. The budget, however, isn’t what raised eyebrows. De Luca and Abdy emerged the victors of a bidding war in part by making an unusual deal with the filmmaker wherein the rights to the IP revert to him after several decades.
Coogler, the acclaimed director whose films have made over $2.6 billion at the global box office, appeared on video to address theater owners, saying the film is his most personal to date.
One bright spot for Abdy and De Luca is A Minecraft Movie, which is tracking to do notable business when opening this weekend at the box office, although the two execs can’t take full credit for the film, since it is a shared project with Legendary Pictures.
The pair are well aware that their fate at Warners hangs in the balance. Bloomberg has gone so far as to report that Zaslav is in early, informal talks regarding potential successors.
Warners global distribution chief Jeff Goldstein dubbed De Luca and Abdy the studio’s “much-celebrated” leaders when first bringing them on stage.
“We continue to believe our movie business is uniquely positioned to drive culture and create value on a global scale. Before we get underway, Mike and I want to take this moment to thank our exhibition partners, who stands alongside Warner Bros. in your unwavering support of our films in your theaters,” Abdy said in her opening remarks. “So thank you, thank you, thank you. As Jeff mentioned, there’s a lot to look forward to over the next year.”
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