It's no secret that Warner Bros. is unhappy about the performance of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Now, in response to that, the company plans on shaking up its entertainment division by creating a special new group focused exclusively on movies. The DC Films division will have Jon Berg and Geoff Johns at its head.
It's not that Batman v Superman didn't make a lot of money, but the production ended up costing so much that it didn't make enough. Even before its release, it seemed that it was nearly impossible for the movie to break even. After its release, the film bombed with critics: the movie only scored 27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice smothers a potentially powerful story - and some of America's most iconic superheroes - in a grim whirlwind of effects-driven action," wrote the website for its critics consensus.
This is in direct contrast to Marvel's movie-making efforts, with its latest film, Captain America: Civil War, having a similar theme (superheroes fighting each other), but becoming highly successful with fans and critics alike.
DC understands that to compete with Marvel, it needs to make changes moving forward. The company already has many more films lined up, so creating a division specifically in charge of that is probably a good first step. It's also important to have someone like Johns in charge, too, because of his background in DC Comics: he's clearly a man who knows his stuff. As an executive at DC, he helped Greg Berlanti bring Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl to TV.
Berg currently serves as the executive vice president of DC, and will work closely with Johns in making sure that DC's film properties begin to improve. Both men will report to Warner Bros. Pictures president Greg Silverman. DC hopes this unifies its vision so that future movies will come together more cohesively.
Behind the scenes, DC is still making changes to deal with the Batman v Superman fallout. The upcoming Suicide Squad movie is currently getting a retooling, Ben Affleck became an executive producer of Justice League and director Seth Grahame-Smith got fired from The Flash in favor of someone with more experience.
The company clearly wants to make its film properties work as well as, if not better than, Marvel's efforts, but will these changes provide enough impetus to make that happen? Only time will tell when the next DC movie releases: Suicide Squad will hit theaters on Aug. 5.
