“Morning, guys,” said Michael De Luca in 2023, from the stage of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. “We’ll try to keep this job for more than two years.”
He chuckled to himself. At the time, De Luca was rehearsing to an empty house at CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie theater owners, beside his longtime friend and Warner Bros. Pictures co-head Pamela Abdy. The duo had just taken the helm of the storied Hollywood studio – home to everything from “The Jazz Singer” to all eight movie installments of “Harry Potter.” De Luca told the joke to acknowledge how swiftly he and Abdy had just vacated their jobs as heads of MGM’s film division for the chance to run 102-year-old Warners.
His zinger didn’t wind up in the final presentation. 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. if things continue to go south.
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 they greenlit to blatant audience rejection and critical revolt.
The mounting pressure has been corrosive for De Luca, Abdy and their team, sources say, creating what one Warner Bros. insider described as a “swirling fiasco” of tension within the motion picture group. Some high-level individuals with knowledge of De Luca and Abdy said their decades-long relationship has been tested as they advocate for projects and manage the expectations of Zaslav.
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 project 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.
When asked by Variety, Abdy pushed back on the notion she and DeLuca had turned on each other. “It’s impossible to me,” she said. DeLuca adding that their friendship “goes back over 30 years and exists outside the business. We are ride or die.”
Both denied open hostility with their teams, via email or otherwise. Abdy said she and De Luca “present as is. We’re from Jersey and Brooklyn, spirited and passionate leaders. There haven’t been aggressive conversations or emails. It’s all about what’s going to be best for the movie.”
Dana Nussbaum, Executive VP of Worldwide Marketing at Warner Bros., said she’s been at the studio “for 21 years, and I’ve seen my share of different leaders. I haven’t seen any open infighting in the past months. We’ve felt incredibly supported by Mike and Pam, who have been leaned in and transparent leaders.”
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. Coogler, not Warner Bros., who will ultimately own the underlying IP in an arrangement similar to Quentin Tarantino’s deal at Sony for “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood.” WB will have first rights to distribute “Sinners” for 25 years, longer than the Tarantino arrangement. Coogler’s $90 million budget means it will need to gross at least $185 million to break even.
In Seth Rogen’s “The Studio,” the new Apple TV+ series, a studio chief with highbrow taste is left grappling with how he can make art for the masses as his corporate overlord (Bryan Cranston) hovers over his shoulder. It’s a problem that seems to be playing out at Warner Bros. — especially on expensive auteur projects like those from Anderson and Gyllenhaal. One individual with insight into DeLuca and Abdy’s dynamic said director Anderson has long been “Mike’s person,” whereas Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” is Abdy’s baby.
De Luca and Abdy denied any friction there, and reiterated they work as a team on all projects. Those inside Warner Bros. were also adamant that both projects were meant for the widest possible audiences and shot on IMAX cameras.
Abdy, however, was vexed by a recent report saying she and De Luca were “irresponsible” for giving Gyllenhaal a huge budget for her second go as a director (following the $5 million Netflix title “The Lost Daughter”).
“This idea that Maggie doesn’t deserve to have a big budget?” she asks. “It’s not cool. Do you know how many men make lower budgeted movies and then go on to have huge budgets?”
The studio heads argued that by moving the movie to March, they allowed for it to compete in a less cluttered space, referencing top earning projects like “Dune: Part Two” Legendary’s monster movies like “Kong,” and competing fare like Disney’s “Cruella,” which all opened in a spring window.
Barring a shakeup at Warner Bros. before then, the real test will come with the September release of DiCaprio’s latest movie. Arguably the biggest star in Hollywood, even DiCaprio has seen his box office powers falter. His last film, 2023’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” only made $68 million at the domestic box office. Anderson’s highest grossing release, 2007’s “There Will Be Blood,” earned $76 million worldwide. “One Battle” will need to make $260 million globally, at least, to justify its means. For context: DiCaprio’s “Once Upon a Time” earned $392.1 million at the box office, but it also co-starred Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.
Sources inside Warner Bros. said Anderson has agreed to audience testing for “One Battle” given its high budget, the first time he’s done so since “Boogie Nights.” Abdy and De Luca confirmed that “One Battle” has tested in three markets (Phoenix, Las Vegas and Dallas).
One source familiar with the production said that issues about the “likability” of Anderson’s ensemble have been raised. In testing, however, DiCaprio was praised for a “quirky” performance. A character played by Benicio del Toro scored highest of all, with one played by Sean Penn also indexing near 80% approval (the actor is already in the Oscar conversation for next year). The same source also suggested DeLuca and Anderson were fighting over the final cut of the film, which is running over 2.5 hours.
Studio insiders denied any tension between De Luca and Anderson (adding that the former was in the latter’s wedding party). Another source added that Anderson has voluntarily trimmed between eight to 10 minutes from “One Battle” after early screening feedback.
According to almost a dozen people, current employees and players aligned with the studio, the lower ranks at Warner Bros. Pictures do not share Abdy and De Luca’s enduring optimism. Many said fear and loathing has been widespread among staffers since the new year, and that the entire company is holding its breath to see if “Minecraft” can rescue morale when it opens April 4.
“We all felt it,” De Luca told Variety of the disappointment over Phillips’ “Joker” sequel. “We didn’t want to fail David. We think we’re turning a corner with ‘Minecraft’ and we’ll have wind in the sails for our diversified slate strategy.”
For now, the industry will watch and wait for how the exhibitors receive the Warner Bros. film slate at CinemaCon. They’ll have proven hits and splashy IP to showcase, especially from WB’s Richard Brener-run specialty label New Line. This includes new films in the “Conjuring” and “Final Destination” franchises, and a feature adaptation of “Mortal Kombat.” If only there was time at CinemaCon to preview films they have in development and production — an IP goldmine including a new “Matrix” film; a sequel to classic “Practical Magic” with the reteaming of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman; another installment of George Clooney’s “Oceans” franchise; and reboots of “Gremlins” and “The Goonies.”
No word on if Mike and Pam will crack jokes in Vegas this year. Perhaps they could borrow from another DiCaprio movie — whose budget was also the source of great anxiety — and play Jack and Rose: two soulmates trying to stay afloat in an unforgiving sea.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to “The Bride!” as a musical.
From Variety US