What are Warner Bros.' biggest media franchises?
Warner Bros. has seen plenty of changes over the past 100 years, including passing through multiple owners (twice in just the past decade). While Warner Bros. Discovery has plenty of assets (CNN, TNT, etc.), it’s the company’s franchises that stand out. Especially recently, given the questionable decision making by WB CEO David Zaslav and the company’s poor performance.
Below’s a list of the top 10 Warner Bros. franchises of all time, based on revenue figures from Wikipedia. The figures listed are for the franchises’ total earnings since day one, and thus includes revenue earned before or outside a few franchises’ ties to Warner Bros. I’m aware there are flaws in this approach: Wikipedia itself (though the figures are cited); how some of the figures are calculated; the amounts aren’t adjusted for inflation; some overlap in a few categories; and third-party licenses. Still, it gives a rough list of Warner’s top franchises, and partially explains why they focus so much on certain material.
The top 10 Warner Bros. franchises
Wizarding World (Harry Potter): $34.5 billion (movies alone: $9.584 billion)
Batman: $29.6 billion
Looney Tunes: $15.9 billion
Ben 10: $7.85 billion
DC Extended Universe (DCEU): $7.63 billion
Superman: $6.9 billion
Middle-earth (The Lord of the Rings): $6.84 billion
Mortal Kombat: $5.06 billion
Scooby-Doo: $4.69 billion
The Big Bang Theory: $4.57 billion
Observations
The above list explains a lot about Warner’s approach toward what to promote. Adding up the three DC-related entries comes to $44.13 billion, making it Warner’s most lucrative wholly-owned franchise. (It’s unclear if the comics are included in the figures.) Thus, why we keep getting Batman movies, plus animated TV shows (less so live-action TV shows), comics, etc. ad nauseam.
Still, by itself, the top franchise overall with Warner ties is “Harry Potter.” Even if just looking at Warner Brothers’ “Potter” films, those alone would clock in after “Looney Tunes” (and above the more-popular-than-I-expected “Ben 10” franchise) on the list. The franchise’s latest video game, “Hogwarts Legacy,” was the top-selling video game of 2023. All of this is a big reason why Warner Bros. keeps going back to the “Harry Potter” well, despite the transphobic beliefs of the books’ creator, J.K. Rowling. Unfortunately, money talks, and fans clearly aren’t deterred by Rowling’s anti-trans views. Or at least not enough to read or buy literally anything else fantasy/magic-themed?
“The Big Bang Theory”’s also a lucrative TV show. Which explains the “Young Sheldon” prequel series, as well as another prequel (and a spin-off for Max) on the way.
Warner Brothers’ problems
While the above are popular franchises, they don’t change one problem for Warner Bros. Despite owning some of American pop culture’s biggest icons, Warner’s pretty smallish in size compared to its competitors. Looking at the market caps (i.e. what a company’s total stock is worth) for the traditional major North American media conglomerates, based on Google and as of March 7, 2024:
Disney: $202.1 billion
Comcast: $165.8 billion
Sony: $109.4 billion
Warner Bros. Discovery: $21.3 billion
Fox Corp.: $13 billion
Paramount: $7.4 billion
Note that as Warner Bros. Discovery, its stock value’s dropped by a whopping two-thirds since the WB/Discovery merger was finalized in 2022. Still, the fact Warner Bros. is only worth a tenth the amount of its century-long competitor, Disney, stands out. It also pales in size compared to Comcast and Sony, though those two include things such as Comcast’s cable TV/broadband assets and Sony’s electronics side.
Not helping Warner Bros. is Zaslav’s dim view of animation. While Warner’s management has always had a mercurial, bean-counter attitude toward cartoons (dating back to the Looney Tunes during Hollywood’s Golden Age), Zaslav’s slashing of animated content left and right for tax write-offs is particularly appalling. Taking away animation and combining the DC-related entries, Warner’s main franchise choices as far as Zaslav is concerned are: “Harry Potter,” DC Comics (mainly Batman/Superman), “Lord of the Rings,” “Mortal Kombat,” and “The Big Bang Theory.”
Conclusion
Overall, it doesn’t look promising for Warner Bros.: a depressed stock price; still saddled with debt from the merger; a smaller size and fewer lucrative franchises compared to several of its rivals; (HBO) Max is popular, but not exactly a “Netflix-killer”; two major ownership changes in the past decade; and the current CEO’s a reality show producer who’s busy strip-mining or trashing anything not nailed down for a buck, all while alienating Hollywood creators. (Who wants to work for a studio that trashes finished movies as a tax write-off?)
The only optimism I have: given the history of Warner Bros., it’ll inevitably be sold again, probably before this decade’s out. Let’s hope the future owners of the home of Bugs, Batman, and company do better (and have more respect for their creators/properties) than the current owners.