Shazam! and Aquaman sequel delays could be good for DC movies

polygon.com:

Warner Bros. Discovery just can’t stay out of the news. After weeks of fan frustration over canceling movies like Batgirland removing titles like Infinity Train from HBO Max, the studio announced on Wednesday that it’s delaying Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. But unlike some of the company’s other recent moves, this one is probably a good step for the future of DC movies.

According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, one reason for these movies’ delays is the marketing budgets. WarnerMedia wants to spread out its marketing costs, narrowing its focus on the studio’s two big remaining movies for the rest of 2022, Don’t Worry Darling and Black Adam.

While not having to market Shazam! 2 during the holidays is surely a money-saving tactic, this also speaks to Warner’s desperation to find a hit. Rather than split its marketing three ways, the delay allows the studio to focus its efforts on those two movies in the hopes of making them into the kind of box office smash hits the studio has lacked for the last several years — with a few exceptions like The Batman, A Star is Born, and Joker.

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Warner Bros. was the most consistent box office performer of any of the major studios, but that has been in consistent decline since 2017. And HBO Max made things even worse.

While other studios held their planned-2020 releases for years, waiting for the perfect moment, Warner weathered bad box office results for releases like Tenet andWonder Woman 1984 to help boost the streaming service’s lineup. The company also announced all of its 2021 movie releases would come out in theaters and on HBO Max the same day, causing clashes with directors, actors, and co-production studios