Warner Bros. revenue almost halved after box office flops for Supergirl and The Bride

Not the best week over at Warner Bros. HQ, if you like your financials in the black. Their latest earnings report makes for grim reading: turnstiles not spinning, popcorn unsold, accountants probably mainlining coffee. The culprit? An absolutely dismal showing at the box office, and yes, it centres squarely on that much-hyped Supergirl film that was meant to fly but instead managed a spectacular faceplant. Throw in another flop, The Bride, and you can see why shareholders probably aren’t breaking out the champagne.

Warner Bros. theatrical revenue fell by 46% in the second quarter of 2026.

Supergirl Sinks, Revenues Plunge

Let's lay out the basic carnage: compared with this time last year, Warner's theatrical revenue got slashed nearly in half—down 46% over the second quarter. In corporate-speak, “challenging comps” means last year was actually strong—thanks to A Minecraft Movie, which packed the cinemas, and Sinners, another box office hit in 2025. This year, all they had to toss into the ring were Supergirl and The Bride, and frankly, nobody showed up.

The result: WBD reported about $8.72 billion in revenue for the quarter, a decent chunk lower than what the Wall Street types had pencilled in (they were hoping for $9.21 billion). Net income trickled in at $100 million—which, for a media giant, is hardly a blockbuster result.

Small Wins, Big Losses

Warner Bros. isn’t just about cinema, though. The TV and streaming side was less of a horror show: streaming revenue actually ticked up 9%, reaching $3.1 billion. That’s largely thanks to top titles like Euphoria, House of the Dragon, The Pitt, and the last-ever season of Hacks, all airing during the quarter.

Still, advertisers seem less keen on lobbing cash at Warner—ad revenue tanked by twenty-two percent. At least some of that is down to Turner networks missing out on NBA games, after the company lost those pricey US basketball rights.

Merger Madne—

Meanwhile, there’s a whole other drama playing out in corporate boardrooms. David Ellison and his Paramount Skydance behemoth have a $111 billion takeover bid on the table for WBD. But it’s not smooth sailing—twelve US states are still lining up to block the merger, so the whole mess heads to trial in March 2027. Throws a bit of shade over any long-term planning.

• If the deal eventually does close, Skydance will owe Warner a hefty “ticking fee” – $7 million per day, starting from 1 October 2026, paid straight to WBD shareholders until (and unless) the acquisition gets inked.

Ellison, for his part, felt compelled to address the elephant in the room—worries he’d start pulling the strings at CNN if the takeover goes ahead. In an op-ed for the New York Times, he put it like this:

“I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views.”

He also insisted: “I believe that news should be based on facts and truth.” Make of that what you will. As for Warner’s official line—they’ve got nothing to share; the latest earnings statement was silent on deal progress.