DC Films President Walter Hamada Leaves Studio - Report

gamespot.com:

After weeks of speculation, it seems that Walter Hamada has officially stepped down as president of DC Films. Sources tell Deadline the longtime exec is simply waiting for the senior Warner Bros. Discovery higher-ups to finalize his exit payout. Hamada worked 15 years at Warner Bros. with the last four as the president of DC Films.

Hamada has overseen the DC division since 2018 and re-signed just last year with a contract that was supposed to take him through 2023. Hamada's final outing at DC will be New Line's upcoming DC movie Black Adam. The Dwayne Johnson vehicle is tracking to open at a projected $135 million at the global box office this weekend despite some pretty harsh first reviews.

This will make the fifth Warner Bros. motion picture studio executive to leave since David Zaslav took control with the recent merger and rechristened Warner Bros. Discovery. Hamada follows Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich, President of Production and Development Courtenay Valenti, Motion Picture Group COO Carolyn Blackwood, and Animation Group EVP Allison Abbate who all were laid off after the merger took place.

Hamada helped guide this year's The Batman during a Covid shoot, with the critically-acclaimed reboot grossing $771 million worldwide, with a sequel officially greenlit. He was also an executive producer on two of DC's highest-grossing movies ever, James Wan's Aquaman ($1.1 billion) and Todd Phillips' Joker, which won two Oscars and became the highest-grossing rated-R movie of all time with $1.07 billion.

With a resume like his, Hamada shouldn't be without work for too long.