latimes.com
>Warner Bros. Pictures’ production head Greg Silverman is stepping down in a major shakeup at the Burbank movie studio seeking to reclaim its perch as Hollywood’s dominant player.
>Silverman, 44, will leave his position at the beginning of next year and start a production company on the Warner Bros. lot, the company said Wednesday.
>Silverman, who has held the title of president of creative development and worldwide production since 2013, will be replaced by Toby Emmerich, who runs the studio’s successful New Line Cinema production company.
>Emmerich, 53, will take on the title of president and chief content officer for Warner Bros. Pictures Group, giving him creative oversight of both New Line and Warner Bros.
>The management change reflects a desire by CEO Kevin Tsujihara to improve the performance of Warner’s movie studio, which has been inconsistent at the box office.
>Though Warner Bros. has been enjoying an upswing this year with surging profits, the studio weathered a difficult box-office run in 2015, with multiple expensive flops during that slate including “Pan,” Ron Howard’s “In the Heart of the Sea,” “Jupiter Ascending” and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E."
>Additionally, the studio has endured heavy criticism for its creative stewardship of its key DC Comics franchise, facing dismal reviews for this year’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad.”
>Both were considered financially successful, grossing $1.6 billion combined. However, the studio likely would have made more money from the superhero epics if the quality had been higher, said a person close to the company not authorized to comment.
>After the disappointing reactions to Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman,” Warner Bros. in May shuffled the executive team in charge of the franchise by naming Jon Berg and Geoff Johns to lead the DC Films brand under Silverman.