Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League ‘Generated Significantly Lower Revenues’ Confirms WBD

Warner Bros Discovery again confirms the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League video game is a massive bust in their Q1 earnings report for 2024.

Back in February, during the company’s Q4 earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Financial Officer, Gunnar Wiedenfels, gave a heads up and said Q1 2024 wouldn’t be as good due to the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League video game not performing as hoped. Wiedenfels went so far as to admit the game by Rocksteady Studios hadn’t done the business the company had hoped for since going on sale on February 2, only three weeks prior, saying it had “fallen short of our expectations.”

“This year, Suicide Squad, one of our key video game releases in 2024, has fallen short of our expectations since its release earlier in the quarter, setting our games business up for a tough year-over-year comp in Q1,” Wiedenfels said at the time.

The Q4 report mentioned the Harry Potter game, Hogwarts Legacy, continued to be a success for them. 

What does the Q1 report say?

Well, Q1 2024 came and went, and sure enough, just like Wiedenfels said, the earnings took a dive.

In short, what the Q1 2024 earnings report reveals is that the success of Hogwarts Legacy in the prior year quarter contributed to higher earnings, while Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League generated significantly lower revenues in the current year quarter, which impacted the overall earnings.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is mentioned three times in the WBD earnings report where it is pointed out the game “generated significantly lower revenues” and “games revenue declined significantly”:

• Q1 total Adjusted EBITDA(2)(*) was $2,102 million, a 20% ex-FX decrease compared to the prior year quarter, primarily driven by the success of Hogwarts Legacy in the prior year quarter while Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League generated significantly lower revenues in the current year quarter.

• Games revenue declined significantly due to the success of Hogwarts Legacy in the prior year quarter, while this year’s Q1 release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League generated significantly lower revenues

• Costs of revenues increased 3% ex-FX, primarily driven by higher theatrical content expense and an impairment of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, partially offset by lower TV content expense due to fewer episodes delivered.