The chaotic road of DC movies over the last decade, as the company embarks on a bold 10-year plan to compete with Marvel

"We have done a reset," Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said. "We've restructured the business where there will be a team with a 10-year plan focusing just on DC. It's very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney."

The movie was largely a flop with critics and has a 58% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. It earned $668 million worldwide off of a $225 million production budget.

"Batman v Superman" grossed $873 million worldwide, but was another project with a hefty budget of $250 million. It was also a critical dud with a 29% Rotten Tomatoes critic score, and a B grade from CinemaScore, which surveys audiences on a movie's opening night (that's low for a superhero movie).

Overall, the movie wasn't the global phenomenon Warner Bros. had hoped it would be, given that it starred its two flagship superheroes. In other words, it didn't break $1 billion, unlike "Captain America: Civil War" later that year, which also pitted Marvel's two heavyweight characters of Iron Man and Captain America against each other.

The "DC Extended Universe," as it was dubbed by fans online and stuck, had produced three misfires with critics in a row. "Suicide Squad" had a 26% Rotten Tomatoes critic score.

And while the movies had performed well at the global box office, they weren't mega hits, especially given their bloated budgets. And, adding insult to injury, they weren't reaching the same heights as Marvel movies.

The movie, directed by Patty Jenkins, was everything Warner Bros. had been looking for in its new DC movies.

It cost less than the other movies to make and earned $822 million globally, on par with "Batman v Superman." And unlike the other DCEU movies, it was a hit with critics, receiving a 93% critic score.

It grossed just $657 million worldwide, a disappointing figure considering it was DC's big superhero team-up movie and it cost $300 million to make after extensive reshoots ballooned the budget.

After "Batman v Superman" was criticized for being too dark and brooding, and after the success of "Wonder Woman," Warner Bros. opted to retool "Justice League."

Fans of Zack Snyder took to social media to try to convince Warner Bros. to release Snyder's version of the movie as he intended, which they called the "Snyder Cut." Snyder fans claimed the theatrical cut differed drastically from Snyder's original vision.

Vulture's feature landed after the release of "Wonder Woman" and ahead of "Justice League," suggesting the company had already accepted defeat on the latter.

The former, however, was largely a standalone story, even though Gadot reprised her role from "Batman v Superman" and would appear again in "Justice League."

"Our intention, certainly, moving forward is using the continuity to help make sure nothing is diverging in a way that doesn't make sense, but there's no insistence upon an overall story line or interconnectivity in that universe," Diane Nelson, the former head of DC Entertainment, told Vulture.

"Birds of Prey" grossed just $205 million worldwide, but cost $85 million, far less than most superhero blockbusters. It found another life on HBO Max after its theatrical run.

"Wonder Woman 1984," the sequel to 2017's "Wonder Woman," was released simultaneously on Max and in theaters amid the coronavirus pandemic. It grossed only $170 million globally, but was hindered by the ongoing pandemic and online piracy.

The movie wasn't the critical hit its predecessor was, and has a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Wrap reported later that year that the director's cut would cost $70 million to finish, as it included additional footage and ultimately clocked in at four hours in length.

While the "Release the Snyder Cut" movement won, the movie is still a cloud over Warner Bros.' head.

Rolling Stone reported recently that the movement was fueled by fake Twitter accounts, and that Snyder himself had hired a digital marketing firm to boost fan engagement in 2016 after the release of "Batman v Superman," which contributed to the cult-like following of his fans (Snyder denied this).

The movie, which was released simultaneously on HBO Max, earned $168 million at the global box office.

DC and Warner Bros. had poached "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn from Marvel after he was briefly fired. Gunn followed the movie up with a TV spinoff on Max called "Peacemaker," starring John Cena, which was a hit. A second season is in the works.

The $90 million movie was nearly complete, but Warner Bros. Discovery opted to not release it in favor of a tax writeoff as it looks to save costs, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

Zaslav defended the decision during this week's earnings call.

"The objective is to grow the DC brand, to grow the DC characters," he said. "But also, our job is to protect the DC brand, and that's what we're going to do."

The company is also focusing on theatrical releases, a pivot from the WarnerMedia regime, and "Batgirl" was developed as a straight-to-streaming release.

"We can't find an economic case for it," Zaslav said.

Upcoming DC releases include:

• "Black Adam" — October 21, 2022
• "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" — December 21, 2022
• "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" — March 17, 2023
• "The Flash" — June 23, 2023

"The Flash is moving forward despite controversy surrounding its star Ezra Miller.

"We have seen 'The Flash,' 'Black Adam' and 'Shazam 2,'" Zaslav said on Thursday. "We are very excited about them. We've seen them. We think they are terrific, and we think we can make them even better."