DC superheroes to replace Harry Potter as Warner Bros’ big tentpole movies

In just over a years time the Harry Potter franchise will be coming to an end with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II in July (Part I this November). Over the past 10 years each Harry Potter film has provided Warner Bros. with over $900 million per outing, and thats without taking into account DVD/Blu-ray sales, merchandise etc. They will need to find another event franchise if they want to keep bringing in the $$$.

The only franchise they have at the moment that makes ridiculous amounts of money is Christoper Nolan’s Batman franchise, with The Dark Knight making just over $1 billion worldwide. Batman 3 is currently in development and should do rather well upon its release (2012?), however that is only one film. What tentpole movies will Warner Bros. be filling the summers of 2013 and beyond with?

Superheroes.

According to Collider, who attended a Warner Bros. presentation at the South by Southwest Film Festival, head honcho Alan Horn confirmed that Warner Bros. will be looking to make use of its DC comics library in order to fill the gapping hole left by Harry Potter. This means that over the upcoming year or so we could be hearing developments on movies such as The Flash, Wonder Woman and eventually a Justice League movie. We’ve heard hints of this before as Warner Bros. are planning to emulate Marvel by making solo movies, and then joining everyone up for a big team movie.

I’m not sure a single Wonder Woman or Flash movie will generate a Harry Potter-type box office return, but if they release two superhero movies a year they should end up making similar numbers. It’ll make fanboys happy too.