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VGPolyglot said:
Lawlight said:

No matter how it makes, the DCEU will continue because they've had 4 huge success prior to this one. Plus, it's clear than the fan reception is very positive. It has the same user average score on RT as Thor 3 - despite having more reviews. So many easter eggs for fans.

Huge successes? Didn't BvS disappoint?

No, they haven't really had huge successes, especially when you put everything into perspective, including how movie companies only get ~50% of the box office draw.  Let's look at them.

Man of Steel - This was a decent success.  It did gross more than Iron Man, which was really the official start of the modern MCU.  Of course, there are a few factors that detract from it.  For one, Superman is a much more well known character WW compared to Iron Man.  Him and Batman probably take up the Top 2 spots on well known and popular superheroes, which makes BvS even worse.  And Iron Man also cost much less to make.  It cost $140M, grossed $585M, which means that the movie studio actually saw ~$153M in profits.  For MoS, it cost $225M to make, grossed $668M, so the studio saw ~$109M in profits.  So, a lesser known character brought in ~$40M+ more in profits than the phenomenon Superman.  Of course, I say profits, but the budgets actually don't take into count the marketing budgets for both films, so they actually made less.  But, seeing as the budget was probably the same for both, the $40M+ most likely still stands.

Batman vs Superman - A moderate success.  Like I said above, this was a clash of arguably the two most popular and well known comic book characters, with some Wonder Woman thrown in for extra support.  Basically, a mini JL movie.  It cost $250M to make, grossed $873M, so a take home of ~$187M.  This doesn't even count the massive marketing ad campaign for the film.  This movie was promoted everywhere, and in every way, so they spent a pretty penny on it.  Now, compare that to Civil War, which came out the same year.  It cost the same $250M, grossed $1.15B, so a take home of $325M.

Suicide Squad - Another moderate success.  It cost $175M to make, grossed $746M, so a take home of $198M.  That's actually a bit above BvS, which should have never happened considering who was in BvS.  But, what does bring this one down a few notches is that DC/WB, for whatever reason, put out a massive ad campaign for this that was on par with, or even eclipsed the one for BvS, which means it probably cost about the same for the marketing.  I mean you couldn't go anywhere without seeing some kind of Suicide Squad ad.  Hell, they even paid the Impractical Jokers to do an ad on almost every commercial break for it.  They were pushing it HARD.

Wonder Women - This is really the only huge success you could truly give them, partially because of the smaller budget.  It cost $149M to make, grossed $822M, so a take home of ~$262M.  It probably also helps that it also had a smaller marketing budget.  Or at least it seems that way, considering it wasn't everywhere like BvS and SS were.

Now, we come to JL.  This movie cost $300M to make, yet it is on track to open up ~$10M less than the stand alone WW movie, and ~$30M less than the recent Thor film.  Of course, we shouldn't even be comparing it to those films, as this is DC's version of The Avengers.  That movie opened up with over $200M in its first weekend, and went on to gross over $1.5B WW.  JL may only do half of that, and yet it cost $80M more to make than The Avengers did.

The fact of the matter is DC/WB were fine with MoS's box office draw, but it wasn't so big that they felt the need to jump into a cinematic universe.  But, after they saw what Marvel was doing with theirs, and the success they were seeing, they fast tracked their own Civil War and Avenger movies, instead of taking the time to fine tune their scripts and pay real respect to their characters the way Marvel has been doing.  The lack of true passion is clear and the box office returns are illustrating that.  Marvel has had 4 films gross over $1.1B WW, while DC can't seem to get any above the $900M mark, regardless of how much money they throw at them.  And while I don't think Thor:R will be added to the $1B club, it will already be well above $700M after this weekend and may very well end up passing BvS.  And if things continue the way they are for JL, it will beat it, too, while costing $120M less to make.

Personally, I think DC needs to start all over again, but with people with real passion for the characters.  Not ones looking to make a quick buck with shitty CG battles wrapped around a poor, disjointed story.

Last edited by thismeintiel - on 18 November 2017