Rumor: James Gunn's Tenure At DC To End With Sale Of Warner Bros. Discovery

A new rumor alleges that James Gunn’s tenure as the co-CEO of DC Studios will end with the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Back in September it was reported that the newly formed Paramount, that just came under the control of media mogul David Ellison in August, was vying to also take over Warner Bros. Discovery. The New York Times reported, “Mr. Ellison is planning a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of HBO, CNN and the Warner Bros. movie studio, according to three people with knowledge of the plans.”

That report appears to have born fruit as Variety reported that Warner Bros. Discovery rejected an initial bid to buy the company for $20 per share. Allegedly that price point was “too low.”

While negotiations are seemingly underway for the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery, another rumor alleges that if it does come to pass, James Gunn will be done at DC Studios and his time leading DC will be over. This rumor comes from Matt McGloin at Cosmic Book News, who reports, “The short of it is that James Gunn will be out as the head of DCU with the WBD sale. I’m told if David Ellison of Skydance Paramount buys WBD, that Mike De Luca will be in charge of DC and do a completely new start.”

Gunn’s performance at the head of DC Studios has been mediocre at best. Superman only grossed $354.1 million domestically and another $261.4 million internationally for a global gross of just $615.6 million. This was worse than Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel when adjusted for inflation. Back in 2013 film that film grossed $291 million domestically and another $367.9 million for a global gross of $524.2 million. Adjust that for inflation and it comes to around $929.1 million.

For another comparison, Man of Steel sold around 4 million more tickets in just the domestic theaters than Superman did. Superman has sold 31,315,534 tickets while Man of Steel sold 35,798,956.

On top of Superman performing worse than Man of Steel, Peacemaker Season 2 also appears to be at the very least a disappointment as the show has failed to chart on Nielsen. In its ost recently released ratings for the week of September 8th-14th, which is when Peacemaker released its fourth episode, the show failed to achieve 360 million minutes watched for the week. That was the total acquired by Ms. Rachel, the 10th place show on the chart.

The show did recently chart on Luminate’s Streaming Originals chart for the week of September 19-25th. However, the show was in 8th place and only garnered 319.4 million minutes. The previous week it only brought in 262.8 million.

To put that in perspective, Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company scrapped The Acolyte because of poor viewership and it had achieved 499 million minutes watched for its 2-episode premiere according to Nielsen.

Additionally, Gunn spoke to Deadline back in August following the release of Superman and indicated that he was deeply stressed about the life and death of the DC brand before its release. He said, “It’s relief, and then followed very quickly by excitement because Superman in some ways was the proof of concept. It was so, so hard. In the same way that Guardians [of the Galaxy] was so, so hard. And once you’re kind of in the groove, you realize, ‘Oh, this is what works. This is what doesn’t. This is where we can go with this.’”

“It means now we have the freedom to tell these other stories in a way that’s really exciting,” he continued. “Now, I can just be creative and I don’t have to be as concerned with the life and death of the DC brand as I was a month and a half ago.”

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