For about a good four and a half decades, DC Comics actually had an edge over their competitors, particularly Fawcett and Marvel Comics. Productions featuring heroes like Superman and Batman and lesser-known characters like Congo Bill and Hop Harrigan were seen in theaters in the 1940s. The 1950s brought the Adventures of Superman to this new fangled thing called television. The 1960s introduced classic characters like Superman, Superboy, The Atom, Green Lantern, Aquaman, The Flash, The Justice League of America, and the Teen Titans to Saturday morning viewers while Batman dominated prime-time and Saturday mornings. The 1970s saw the formation of the Superfriends, Wonder Woman taking over prime-time, and Superman making theater-goers believe a man can fly.
In the 1980s, productions based on DC Comics weren't so prominent, and a number of those were seen as critical and commercial failures. Superman III and IV didn't adhere to the prestige of the first two films in the series. Nobody wanted to see a Supergirl or Swamp Thing movie. The Superboy series had strength, but once the boy became a man, it didn't continue from there. Even the 1988 Superman series, which brought the new continuity created by the Man of Steel comic miniseries to the masses for the first time, bombed (of course, one could easily blame the fact that CBS aired it at 8 in the morning on the East Coast). It wasn't until 1989's Batman that DC Comics had something they could be truly proud of, and the 1990s built up from that point.
The creation of the DC Animated Universe with Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, and Static Shock were a highlight of the decade. On the live-action side, there were some hits but mostly misses. The decade's three sequels to Batman were seen as strange and awkward. Lois and Clark was largely seen as an overrated soap opera. The Flash came and went as fast as he ran in. That's pretty much all DC Comics had in the 1990s. The first half of the 2000s were a mixed bag. Smallville started out great, but fans of Superman now see it as sappy and pretentious. Birds of Prey was an awkwardly-produced series. Justice League was initially controversial because they picked John Stewart over the most popular Green Lantern Hal Jordan (who was, at the time the series was being developed, a dead supervillain) and Hawkgirl over Hawkman, but it proved to be a great continuation (and conclusion) of the DCAU. Teen Titans were just as popular if not more. The movie side got jumpstarted in 2005 with the release of Batman Begins followed by Superman Begins a year later, Constantine, V For Vengence, and The Dark Knight. Acclaimed movies like Road to Perdition and A History of Violence were based on graphic novels published by DC Comics. Recent animated series The Batman and Legion of Super Heroes came and went while direct to video animated adaptations of DC Universe stories like Justice League: New Frontier, Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight, and the upcoming Wonder Woman.
Aside from Watchmen and Shazam!, not much is happening. There is no real direction, and they know it. Instead, they just look at what Marvel Studios are doing and trying to emulate it.
Marvel made successful commercial films in the late 90s and first half of the 2000s, DC followed. Marvel launched a DTV animated movie project, DC followed. DC, once the leader, is now playing catchup to Marvel in the area they had long dominated for over half a century.
Here is some advice the original universe could follow to compete against and potentially outshine their competitors.