Who said they weren't? Also "Super Friends" and the "Wonder Woman" TV series are all part of the character's mythos and viewers of that would also be part of the target audience for such a film if it ever were to be made.
Of course they can be part of the target audience but WW can be far beyond that.
The franchise has matured past those versions. Which are no longer relevant in the current era.
They're not even the source material at all. They're dumbed down versions whose day in the sun are over. Time to move on.
It would be like Nolan using Adam West's Batman as the source of movies.
I don't think a lot of the audience would even know who Simone, Perez, Rucka, or even Jimenez are.
The audience doesn't need to know who they are but the people making WW do.
Its up to the film makers to know the property inside and out to reach its potential. They won't do that unless they talk to or read what these people have done to the franchise in the comics.
They certainly won't make it relevant by making new stuff up (that's how we got Catwoman) or relying on irrelevant versions which don't fit in this era.
The comics have done all the hard work for them. May as well use the material.
In fact, names like Asimov, Chrighton, David, Foster, and King are even more remarkable.
Those names, while popular, have no bearing on WW. I didn't pick those names at random.
These characters wouldn't likely sell on film (at least in solo movies) due to their popularity in the comics.
Etrigan the Demon = medieval knight bonded to a demonic being for eternity as punishment for betraying King Arthur
Manhunter = hard as nails prosecutor who became a super-hero to stop super-villains who weren't punished by the law
Blue Beetle = young kid bonded to an alien artifact to save humanity from the alien race who created it
Watch "The Demon Within" from Batman:TAS and the JLU episode "A Knight of Shadows" to see his potential in animation. The Demon can be updated into a scary monster easily with special effects and a good designer.
Popularity in comics doesn't mean anything. Hellboy has never been popular in the comics or Blade yet still made successful films. Sin City, American Splendor, Ghost World, 300 and Iron Man are in the same boat.
These three are only the tip of the ice berg with DC. They have literally hundreds of thousands of these properties. A lot of them guest-starred on JLU.
I don't think the studios are really concerned about who character may be in particular. They are more concerned with their marketability and whether their story will net a return on investment for a film.
They need to actually know a property exists before they know if they can market it or not. Taking a quick glance at wiki isn't going to cut it, either. They should have to do actual research before knowing something is marketable or good enough to warrant a tv show/cartoon/movie.
They don't need to do everything at once. They could build a franchise up over time in various mediums starting with a cartoon (The Demon has already appeared in JLU and Batman The Animated Series) and a tv show years later until they've got the public familiar enough with the property before making a film. They have been doing some good building with Legion & Teen Titans in cartoons but right now both franchises aren't doing anything for WB at all, just like WW.
The three listed could easily become animated movies, live action films, live action tv shows and cartoons. Manhunter and Demon would be suited to a HBO treatment like Spawn. Blue Beetle would be easy to make into an all ages cartoon since they have Ben 10 as a template.
Exactly what does a franchise have to do for WB to consider it worthy enough to net a return investment?
