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Rumor: Warner Brothers rethinking entire DC film slate based on Batman v Superman

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I really hope that Snyder gets replaced with James Wan the same way Whedon was replaced by the Russo Bros. I've never known how badly I wanted to see Wan's vision of the Justice League until he was announced to direct Aquaman.

I'm trying to be hopeful about Bats vs Supes, because of the awesome marketing, but it's a sequel to my least favorite comic book movie of all time. So it has a lot to overcome for me.
 
We'll get the truth soon.
Daj5bRS.png
 

bryanee

Member
It made money. By the skin of its teeth.

But it also fell way below studio expectations and led to the president of WB, Jeff Robinov, resigning. He went on record before release that he expected it to be WB's "most lucrative film," which at the time and still today is the last Harry Potter film. Obviously, that didn't happen. Not even by half.

I think it made back its budget with promotional stuff alone. It did better than by the skin of its teeth.
 
Has it just been too long since the Donner films? Sometimes I wonder if people really even know what they want from a Superman film. I think I'm lost on that too. I didn't like Returns or MOS, so If you asked me to put into words what I want from Superman in film now, I don't think I could answer.
 
Not surprised considering the movie looks terrible outside of Affleck to me.

It seriously has one of the most... off trailers I've seen in quite a long time (the one that revealed Doomsday)

I'm ONLY curious because of Batfleck..... and this is someone who's a big Superman fan and feels All Star Superman is one of the greatest comics ever written
 

Garlador

Member
So MoS was considered a box office disappointment, then?

Disappointment? Perhaps. It just wasn't a flop.

You can be a successful movie and still disappoint financial expectations.

And, let's not kid ourselves... Man of Steel's reception is mixed at best. It's in the same vein as the Star Wars prequels, Transformers movies, and Spider-man 3. They have their defenders, they all made money, but for everyone who saw it and liked it there's someone who saw it and despised it.
 
We'll get the truth soon.
Daj5bRS.png

Lol, let's go to the king of bullshit himself, El Mayimbe, to comment on a clickbait video.
I think it made back its budget with promotional stuff alone. It didn't better than by the skin of its teeth.

The promotional stuff was not cash in hand. It almost never is. It certainly, absolutely went a great length to cover cost, but that was mostly in marketing. In terms of RoI, Man of Steel was not a great earner.
 
Kinda sorta but not really. I think WB still made a decent profit due to the, ahem, subtle product placement.

Avengers demolishing records left and right two months earlier made MoS's gross look small imo.

Avengers was released over a year before MoS, actually. Though it's probably not a coincidence that no one involved with MoS even hinted at it being set in a broader shared DCU until late 2012, long after production had wrapped.
 
Disappointment? Perhaps. It just wasn't a flop.

You can be a successful movie and still disappoint financial expectations.

And, let's not kid ourselves... Man of Steel's reception is mixed at best. It's in the same vein as the Star Wars prequels, Transformers movies, and Spider-man 3. They have their defenders, they all made money, but for everyone who saw it and liked it there's someone who saw it and despised it.

Come now, Man of Steel has its issues, but it is nowhere near as bad as the other films you listed.
 

jackdoe

Member
Disappointment? Perhaps. It just wasn't a flop.

You can be a successful movie and still disappoint financial expectations.

And, let's not kid ourselves... Man of Steel's reception is mixed at best. It's in the same vein as the Star Wars prequels, Transformers movies, and Spider-man 3. They have their defenders, they all made money, but for everyone who saw it and liked it there's someone who saw it and despised it.
That's ridiculous. Man of Steel is not in the same vein as the Star Wars prequels, Transformers movies, or Spider-man 3 (that honor goes to Green Lantern). If anything, it's closer to Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk.
 
We'll get the truth soon.
Daj5bRS.png

lmao

I'll give McWeeny the benefit of the doubt since so many are vouching for him, I don't think it's unreasonable that WB executives are getting anxious on how a $400 million (again rumored) budget movie will perform. A lot is riding on this for WB, especially coming off of last year's awful box office performance.

As nice as it would be to cherry pick which rumors I want to believe and which ones I don't from the same source, that's not how it works. Still the timing of this is a bit suspect, it's not like he's referring to a recent report he made, this news is suddenly reported the day a trailer comes out.

Oh well, this wait sucks. Like I've said from the beginning, at the worst I'll have some awesome action scenes and a good OST to listen.
 
I just posted in the trailer thread that I was worried they don't have a plan for Superman and now I see this. I hope it's just a rumour.

It's hard to believe they would make a mess of the character again, after getting a second chance. And it's not like Man of Steel and its problems haven't been dissected for them all over the internet.

If you really want to do the DCU and the Justice League, you better come to terms with the character - because he needs to be there out in front leading the whole thing. He needs to work.
 
That's ridiculous. Man of Steel is not in the same vein as the Star Wars prequels, Transformers movies, or Spider-man 3 (that honor goes to Green Lantern). If anything, it's closer to Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk.

It is according to Rotten tomatoes. It's critical reception was the same as The Phantom Menace and lower than the other 2 in the PT. It's also lower than Spiderman 3 and just below the first Transformers.
 

zma1013

Member
That's ridiculous. Man of Steel is not in the same vein as the Star Wars prequels, Transformers movies, or Spider-man 3 (that honor goes to Green Lantern). If anything, it's closer to Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk.

Yeah, I agree, Man of Steel wasn't great, but it wasn't Star Wars prequels terrible. I'd firmly put it in with those films you listed, although Captain America had a great first half. Basically everything up until he started actively fighting the enemy was good stuff.
 

Jito

Banned
People just don't like Superman and when you put him in a film next to Batman, it's going to be painfully obvious.
 

Blader

Member
i call bullshit.

wasn't there that report/rumor a while ago saying WB was really happy with early impressions?
The rumor was that they loved it enough to immediately want to sign up Affleck for the next 10 years. So they definitely loved the Batman parts, which McWeeny doesn't contradict here.
 

Josh5890

Member
I haven't seen it yet but I am already losing hype because it feels like the trailers have shown everything, and I've actively tried to avoid them.
 

Spaghetti

Member
I imagine the same amount that the Wachowski get?
I think WB are keeping them happy in case things get so dire for them they decide to do another Matrix trilogy.

Snyder is running out of road. All style, no substance. People should have been tipped off to this when his brainchild Sucker Punch was as shallow as a puddle of piss and nothing more than a long music video. He's got a shockingly short filmography too, which makes the decision to rest the future of the DC film universe on his shoulders even more baffling.
 
I love Superman, but his super powers and ideal hero symbol is not what the character is all about.

I read this all the time and I don't doubt it.....but do you think Superman's finer qualities can be shown in a story for a blockbuster movie?

Maybe Superman isn't a boring character but I do think Batman is much easier.
 

Fury451

Banned
Has anyone ever gotten Superman " right " in movies ?

In the animated movies, yes. Superman vs. The Elite for example.

I really liked what I saw of their Batman from the newest trailer. The idea of some of these plot lines being in medias res is quite appealing, because it means avoiding another freaking origin story.

Really hope they don't change suicide squad around, or stop being ambitious with making more offbeat films like that, but honestly if the rumors and rumblings about the Justice League seem like a hot mess from the beginning to me.
 
Avengers was released over a year before MoS, actually. Though it's probably not a coincidence that no one involved with MoS even hinted at it being set in a broader shared DCU until late 2012, long after production had wrapped.

Shit that's right. I always get their release dates wrong. Guess I mixed up Avengers with Iron Man 3.
 

AxeMan

Member
After just reading the OP and no other comments

The problem is Superman. He just doesn't translate well into films. All SM movies are very sub-par and just not interesting and it's because SM isn't interesting
 
Superman is not an easy character to work with. He is the definition of a character that a 5 year old would think up as far as overpowering and his library of skills.

You either repeat kryptonite over and over to bring him down levels or you have to go with the absurd to create something that can actually stand upto superman.

Not surprising Batman works much easier

Man, the psychological strain of being everything to everyone - and worse, having the senses to hear everyone's pain all at the same time - is really the challenge for Superman. I have read solid fanfic that addresses this aspect of being Superman, but I guess it makes for the type of superhero film I want to see (lots of introspection and dialogue) and not the one that most people want to see (action scenes, SFX).
 

guek

Banned
Reading this thread, I feel like I've taken crazy pills. So much confirmation bias from people that ain't even seen the film yet....
Hahaha my thoughts exactly. You can see it from both fans and haters alike.

I'd be considered a hopeful pessimist when it comes to BvS but either way, I'm gonna wait to see how it actually turns out. Rather wait when we don't know how it'll actually turn out and perform before saying something bold I can't take back.
 
Man, the psychological strain of being everything to everyone - and worse, having the senses to hear everyone's pain all at the same time - is really the challenge for Superman. I have read solid fanfic that addresses this aspect of being Superman, but I guess it makes for the type of superhero film I want to see (lots of introspection and dialogue) and not the one that most people want to see (action scenes, SFX).

No offense but that movie would suck.

Mainly because despite having Superhuman powers Superman will inevitably have to pick and choose which voices he tends to and which he ignores at any one time (as if Superman weren't enough of a God archetype) opening him up to even more scrutiny than he received when he was smashing buildings in Man of Steel.
 
one where MoS did good at the box office and outside of internet denizens, was well received.

It did good and was well received. It unfortunately tracked far below WB's expectations.

Realize, Warner Bros has been chasing Harry Potter money and Batman ever since that last films launched. Those were the good times and they can't go back. Imagine you made $100,000 every year for awhile. Then the project you were working on died out. You work on other projects, but they only make $60,000 a year for you. You're making money, sure, but you're not making either the same amount of money you were or more. In big business, treading water or doing worse is bad. Man of Steel might be unrelated, but to WB, it was a direct mental follow-up to The Dark Knight Rises, which did $1 billion worldwide.

Warner Bros is looking at Disney and wondering, "Why can't that be me?" So, Man of Steel gets expanded into the DC Cinematic Universe. The Lego Movie is a surprise success, leading to three sequels. J.K. Rowling wrote a new book? Make that into a movie... No, make it into THREE movies.

Kevin Tsujihara is under fire right now and 2015 was a big problem. He needs hits and he needs them now. I'm now surprised WB is making reactive decisions.
 
the fact that WB gave us freaking Mad Max and Creed (by far the best nostalgic franchise revivals of last year really) makes me give their creative decisions the benefit of the doubt.

giving the keys to snyder...debatable, but ayer seems like a very inspired choice going by the suicide squad trailer. we'll see how it pans out. we've been speculating for so many years now lol. i think this film was announced like 3 or 4 years ago.
 
They love Eisenberg ? The guy is a good actor but in every trailer I see him in I cannot see him as Lex Luthor. Even the delivery of his lines in the trailers are way too wacky.
 

mreddie

Member
the fact that WB gave us freaking Mad Max and Creed (by far the best nostalgic franchise revivals of last year really) makes me give their creative decisions the benefit of the doubt.

Yet 85% of their 2015 was a wreck with bombs. When Universal can shake off Jem Bomb while WB released 2-3 bombs in a row, yeah, being under fire makes sense.
 

Toki767

Member
They should just give the movies to the people behind Arrow/Flash/Supergirl.

At least they typically know what they're doing.
 
Yet 85% of their 2015 was a wreck with bombs. When Universal can shake off Jem Bomb while WB released 2-3 bombs in a row, yeah, being under fire makes sense.

no doubt. but i'm just saying once they get more conservative and disney-like with their decisions while it will be a smarter business move and likely pay off in the end say goodbye to something as refreshing as fury road or edge of tomorrow happening from them again.

suicide squad also looks like it wouldn't have been greenlit at any other studio with that budget.
 
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