James Gunn's DC Studios' Phase I: Gods and Monsters is officially in motion in theaters with the release of Superman, and the writer, director, and producer has scored big at the box office.
James Gunn generally knows what he’s doing and I’m sure the movie is fine.
But a film that cost $225M to produce and another $200M to market on a franchise that’s nearly a century old and has always been box office gold… If it doesn’t turn a cool $1B the studio will consider it a flop. That its cruising in to the box office third place behind Minecraft (predictably disappointing) and the Live Action Lilo & Stitch (Christ, Disney, just die already) is… eh. Not a great sign for The Movies generally speaking.
I think this is one of the few cases where the studio does care more about the critical and especially fan reception than the box office returns. They are trying to relaunch their whole franchise and this is one of the cornerstones.
Also $1b is just way off considering not a single superman movie has ever achieved it based on this source.
Apart from billionaire pet projects like Laika that might be true, but this seems a bit too reductionist. There are many ways to go about it and the difference matters. Unless you want to tell me the the whole media industry from Netflix to A24 does the exact same thing.
My line of thought is that yes the end goal is shareholder value/money, but the method varies. You can go for quality or quantity, or for long vs short term profits. And those steps in-between matter.
In this case with WB and Superman the amount of money an occasional Superman movie can make is not enough, they want that sweet franchise model. But you can’t just will that into place, as they’ve demonstrated with their failure to do so so far.
There has to be some substance at the start before you can roll out even lesser IP and make bank like marvel. Which is why in this instance they probably don’t care as much about the profit from this movie, but try to optimize it more for audience and critic appeal.
Exactly. And also i think it’s hard to see those superhero movies aimed at establishing a franchise as something standalone.
[…] Superman is just the first step,” he added. “Over the next year alone, DC Studios will introduce the films Supergirl and Clayface in theaters and the series Lanterns on HBO Max, all part of a bold ten-year plan.
I think a great example to look at is The Suicide Squad. If you look purely at the numbers, Suicide Squad (2016) brought in ~750m globally versus The Suicide Squad (2021) which brought in ~170m globally.
The first Suicide Squad was one of the worst DCEU films. The second The Suicide Squad was one of the best DCEU films and handed DC Studios to James Gunn (and Peter Safran).
I think looking purely at the numbers Superman is likely to come out as small victory (monetarily). However as a franchise, it’s a solid start.
Minecraft movie is nice just as an affirmation that the game is impactful but yeah its full of nonsense famous people doing famous people things. I didnt see the other two, unfortunately I hate live action remakes and super hero movies are so predictable these days.
I’d love to hear why people like superman this time around though, maybe they did come up with some unique ideas.
I was curious about how the Minecraft movie adapted the voxel world, but I started watching it and pretty quickly turned it off.
Superhero movies are OK, I like the Batman series, but otherwise I am good watching one movie a decade (with some exceptions).
To me, a lot of the motifs are extremely provincial and lazy. I remember watching the first Iron Man in 2008, there was this scene where Downey Jr. is imprisoned in a cave by the Taliban and he builds the iron man costume out of spare parts or something and escapes.
It was so stupid. Especially considering in real life an American oligarch in such a situation would do everything to not rock the the boat and exploit his American citizenship and financial status to get released (either via an exchange or giving the Taliban lots of money).
I dont like hero movies mostly because they tend to romanticize a very juvenile view of the world, and it makes it hard to suspend belief when none of the adults act in any sort of rational way.
I do love batman though since you mentioned it, but the universe really. Gotham the tv show was fantastic, I loved the video game trilogy, and I can’t think of a batman movie I haven’t liked. Thats a universe where people very much act like you would expect them to given the circumstances.
It was so stupid. Especially considering in real life an American oligarch in such a situation would do everything to not rock the the boat and exploit his American citizenship and financial status to get released (either via an exchange or giving the Taliban lots of money).
It’s a super hero movie. Tony Stark is an idealized futurist. You’re oligarchs in the franchise are Justin Hammer or Obadiah Stane.
That’s fair. I am just sharing my perspective. Keep in mind this was in 2008, when it just got released in cinemas and that was my initial gut-feeling reaction. Not sure who the other fellows are, but in my mind the Stark character was clearly an American oligarch.
As I mentioned in my OP, for me positioning Minecraft’s popularity as being bad for the movie industry, while at the same time presenting Superman as a contribution to cinema seems a bit inconsistent.
Stane was the main villain of IM1. Hammer was one of the villains of IM2. Stark was an oligarch, but that’s part of his character arc. He wasn’t a good person in the beginning. That’s the point.
As far as Minecraft and other popcorn flicks being bad for the industry, those types of movies have always existed.
James Gunn generally knows what he’s doing and I’m sure the movie is fine.
But a film that cost $225M to produce and another $200M to market on a franchise that’s nearly a century old and has always been box office gold… If it doesn’t turn a cool $1B the studio will consider it a flop. That its cruising in to the box office third place behind Minecraft (predictably disappointing) and the Live Action Lilo & Stitch (Christ, Disney, just die already) is… eh. Not a great sign for The Movies generally speaking.
I think this is one of the few cases where the studio does care more about the critical and especially fan reception than the box office returns. They are trying to relaunch their whole franchise and this is one of the cornerstones.
Also $1b is just way off considering not a single superman movie has ever achieved it based on this source.
Naw man, studios only care about money.
Apart from billionaire pet projects like Laika that might be true, but this seems a bit too reductionist. There are many ways to go about it and the difference matters. Unless you want to tell me the the whole media industry from Netflix to A24 does the exact same thing.
I am not following your thinking.
The pet projects are the ones done for passion and other reasons.
Netflix, A24 and Disney, release movies and TV shows for one reason, to make money.
My line of thought is that yes the end goal is shareholder value/money, but the method varies. You can go for quality or quantity, or for long vs short term profits. And those steps in-between matter.
In this case with WB and Superman the amount of money an occasional Superman movie can make is not enough, they want that sweet franchise model. But you can’t just will that into place, as they’ve demonstrated with their failure to do so so far.
There has to be some substance at the start before you can roll out even lesser IP and make bank like marvel. Which is why in this instance they probably don’t care as much about the profit from this movie, but try to optimize it more for audience and critic appeal.
Right, make it now or make it later.
Exactly. And also i think it’s hard to see those superhero movies aimed at establishing a franchise as something standalone.
This excerpt from the article really says it all.
I think a great example to look at is The Suicide Squad. If you look purely at the numbers, Suicide Squad (2016) brought in ~750m globally versus The Suicide Squad (2021) which brought in ~170m globally.
The first Suicide Squad was one of the worst DCEU films. The second The Suicide Squad was one of the best DCEU films and handed DC Studios to James Gunn (and Peter Safran).
I think looking purely at the numbers Superman is likely to come out as small victory (monetarily). However as a franchise, it’s a solid start.
The second suicide squad also came out at the height of the pandemic. I’m sure that factored into their calculations.
Children’s movies tend to have inflated numbers because kids can’t see the movie on their own
An arguement can be made that Superman itself is not a great sign for the movies.
Not telling anyone what they should watch, but for me personally there is little difference between Minecraft, Lilo and Stitch and Superman.
Minecraft movie is nice just as an affirmation that the game is impactful but yeah its full of nonsense famous people doing famous people things. I didnt see the other two, unfortunately I hate live action remakes and super hero movies are so predictable these days.
I’d love to hear why people like superman this time around though, maybe they did come up with some unique ideas.
I was curious about how the Minecraft movie adapted the voxel world, but I started watching it and pretty quickly turned it off.
Superhero movies are OK, I like the Batman series, but otherwise I am good watching one movie a decade (with some exceptions).
To me, a lot of the motifs are extremely provincial and lazy. I remember watching the first Iron Man in 2008, there was this scene where Downey Jr. is imprisoned in a cave by the Taliban and he builds the iron man costume out of spare parts or something and escapes.
It was so stupid. Especially considering in real life an American oligarch in such a situation would do everything to not rock the the boat and exploit his American citizenship and financial status to get released (either via an exchange or giving the Taliban lots of money).
I dont like hero movies mostly because they tend to romanticize a very juvenile view of the world, and it makes it hard to suspend belief when none of the adults act in any sort of rational way.
I do love batman though since you mentioned it, but the universe really. Gotham the tv show was fantastic, I loved the video game trilogy, and I can’t think of a batman movie I haven’t liked. Thats a universe where people very much act like you would expect them to given the circumstances.
It’s a super hero movie. Tony Stark is an idealized futurist. You’re oligarchs in the franchise are Justin Hammer or Obadiah Stane.
That’s fair. I am just sharing my perspective. Keep in mind this was in 2008, when it just got released in cinemas and that was my initial gut-feeling reaction. Not sure who the other fellows are, but in my mind the Stark character was clearly an American oligarch.
As I mentioned in my OP, for me positioning Minecraft’s popularity as being bad for the movie industry, while at the same time presenting Superman as a contribution to cinema seems a bit inconsistent.
Stane was the main villain of IM1. Hammer was one of the villains of IM2. Stark was an oligarch, but that’s part of his character arc. He wasn’t a good person in the beginning. That’s the point.
As far as Minecraft and other popcorn flicks being bad for the industry, those types of movies have always existed.
You must not have seen any of the recent Superman films.
I’ve seen quite a few. The box office numbers are regularly better than they should be.