James Gunn claims “movie industry is dying” due to bad scripts

Posted On June 17, 2025June 17, 2025

James Gunn, the head of DC Studios, has claimed that the “movie industry is dying” due to poor quality and “unfinished screenplays.”

The filmmaker was speaking to Rolling Stone in a recent interview, where he explained that, in his opinion, the quality of movie output is suffering currently as many projects are being pushed into production before a finished script has been finalised.

He said: “I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies. It’s not because of home screens getting so good,” before adding, “The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.”

Gunn’s disapproval of this way of working is so strong that he admitted he recently “just killed a project” because of that issue, making it clear that he prioritises complete screenplays in his tenure as DC’s studio head.

He explained: “Everybody wanted to make the movie. It was greenlit, ready to go. [But] the screenplay wasn’t ready. And I couldn’t do a movie where the screenplay’s not good.”

In comparison to its main rival, Marvel, Gunn also said he believes his studio is faring better in the superhero franchise box office wars due to a lack of pressure from its parent company, Warner Bros.

Reflecting that Disney’s push for more content at Marvel “killed them,” Gunn noted that from his perspective: “We don’t have the mandate [at DC Studios] to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year. So we’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. Nothing goes before there’s a screenplay that I personally am happy with.”

Gunn’s latest directorial effort, the next instalment of Superman, is set for release on July 11th.

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