Times are tough over at Warner Bros

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Fast forward another two years, and no one at Warner Bros. is laughing even a little.

Under De Luca and Abdy’s watch, yes, Warner Bros. had 2023’s monster hit “Barbie,” which was technically greenlit under the regime of their predecessor Toby Emmerich. But the studio has been hurting as its film slate for 2024 crashed and burned. So far in 2025, a pair of movies about doppelgangers, which rely heavily on special effects — Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” with Robert Pattinson and “The Alto Knights” with Robert De Niro — will set the studio back at least $110 million in losses.

Until this month, De Luca and Abdy hadn’t seemed as concerned with the balance sheet at Warner Bros. Over their long career, the pair have branded themselves as filmmaker champions who love to take big swings. But with morale on the lot dangerously low, industrywide chatter and numerous reports suggests that De Luca and Abdy’s days running Warner Bros. could be numbered. Sources say the pair have lost the confidence of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, whose impatient management style is focused on the bottom line. As the rumor mill has gone into overdrive, the town has whispered that Peter Safran – the co-chairman of WB’s DC Films with James Gunn - could possibly inherit control of all of Warner Bros

While the studio counted a win last year with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” De Luca and Abdy have had to weather bad press swirling around “Furiosa” and “Juror No. 2,” Clint Eastwood’s latest drama which went to streaming following a token release in theaters. None of those titles, however, bombed as severely Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux,” a film that saw blatant audience rejection and critical revolt.

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Things came to a head inside the operation last week, in the run up to a slew of release date changes, four sources with knowledge of the matter told Variety. Notably, Paul Thomas Anderson’s $130 million-plus crime thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio (“One Battle After Another”) was pushed from the summer blockbuster season to September, where it can be positioned for awards. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” – a punk rock arthouse musical based on the Bride of Frankenstein, which cost $80 million – was moved from September to spring 2026.

In the days prior to the date changes, De Luca and Abdy had taken to having shouting matches in the office they share on the lot, two sources said. Another studio insider said the executives were openly bickering with their marketing team on group emails.

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The pair acknowledged some well-documented recent failures and stood strong behind their next crop of movies. Early tracking for Jack Black’s “Minecraft” movie suggests it could resonate, but it’s no “Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Abdy and DeLuca are particularly bullish on “Sinners,” an original piece of vampire IP from “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, which is currently tracking at a decent $40 million 3-day opening (though it’s Coogler, not Warner Bros., who will ultimately own the underlying IP). The film’s $90 million budget means it will need to gross at least $185 million to break even.

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