Interesting take.
My view was that Marvel started out with a blueprint for where they wanted to go with their franchise. They made minor course corrections with a few later movies after Phase 1, yet they stuck to the blueprint and it's paid off handsomely. With the conclusion of Phase 3 however, I believe that the MCU will begin to drop off in popularity. Captain Marvel created unwanted controversy that Kevin Feige had avoided up till then. It was a bad move and created unnecessary division within the fan base. That wasn't smart and neither was treating those fans with disdain and disrespect. That will come back to haunt them, long term. It also appears that going forward into Phase 4, they don't really have an extended blueprint. That's not a good thing. The Infinity Stones gave them a unifying story arch from Phase 1-3 but without something new, fans might lose interest, especially in stand alone movies for characters that most fans aren't interested in. Marvel/Disney won't always be able to use "charities" to prop up their box office numbers.
Now to DC. Warner Bro's had NO blueprint when they started this journey. It well known that they tried to shortcut the Marvel formula for a shared universe, by throwing a few movies at the screen and viola, have the kind of financial success the MCU was enjoying. Of course, that was a bad decision and with their studio interference in the rush jobs that were BVS and Suicide Squad, they nearly wrecked all future DC movies and tarnished the mystiques of both Batman and Superman in the process. Then they finally got it, only after losing badly in both the financial realm and being summarily humiliated by Marvel Studios publicly. Now they seem to be taking it one movie at a time, letting those golden age comic heros stand on their individual movies and build up to something. They might not even know yet what they are building towards but at least they are finally on a path and making fun, fan supported and GOOD movies.
reply
share
QueenFanUSA (3375)
5 years ago
DarthRoger...nice post with lots of salient posts and insights.
The only thing I would add is that DC has a reputation that most of their films were box-office failures from the Snyder era but only one lost money(Justice League) and all the rest were profitable...some handsomely so.
reply
share
DarthRoger (867)
5 years ago
You are correct, BVS and Suicide Squad both made money but their bad fan reception ultimately hurt Justice League. That movie should have been their crown jewel. At least they seem to have their footing now.
reply
share
QueenFanUSA (3375)
5 years ago
Suicide Squad actually had good legs during it's box office run and wasn't super-frontloaded like BvS was. The fan reception looks like it was pretty good on that one...hence it's getting a sequel.
reply
share
TJLamb0518 (3316)
5 years ago
Suicide Squad was definitely front loaded. It dropped 65.1% week 1 to week 2, with it losing 53.3% of that in week 3 and 43% of THAT by week 4 where it grossed 16,644,689 for the week.
reply
share
QueenFanUSA (3375)
5 years ago
Ok I guess you didn't understand what "it wasn't super-frontloaded like BvS was" means. Most CBM's are frontloaded to one degree or another.
It ended it's domestic run with 325 million from a 133 million opening weekend. That's a good multiplier for a CBM.
My point was that Suicide Squad was not "poorly received" when it basically made the same amount as BvS and it was the first DC Film to immediately follow that poorly received film.
And...they immediately greenlit a sequel.
reply
share
DarthRoger (867)
5 years ago
I'm conflicted over Suicide Squad. Unlike BVS, I didn't hate it. However that doesn't mean it was a good movie. It wasn't.
In the end, I'll at least give them credit for trying to do something different. The things that hurt SS were twofold - casting and script.
On the first one, you have Will Smith basically playing Will Smith. They should have picked someone more intimidating and frankly believable for that role. And then there's Harley Quinn. I love Margot Robbie and she's nice to look at but WHY would Harley Quinn even be in this movie, accept in a very minor role? Harley Quinn with a baseball bat is about as powerful a villain as any psycho/meth head/rabid human with a baseball bat. In other words, not powerful at all! She's not a metahuman. You only send HQ into a situation against godlike beings if you want someone to be cannon fodder.
On the second one, the story here is just garbage. They had the elements to make a much better plot than Enchantress and her magical brother doing whatever the hell it was they were trying to do. It was just silly. They could have found a better use for Joker, made him the main antagonist and had the team go up against him. Then they would have had a reason to include HQ, to use her as a bait to catch Joker. These are my thoughts at least.
So overall, Suicide Squad was a misfire but not in a horrible way like BVS.
reply
share
TJLamb0518 (3316)
5 years ago
I'm not conflicted. Neither were good movies at all. The difference is, Suicide Squad was not as offensive because it did not take cherished childhood heroes and take a big old dump on them. If they screw up Slipknot and Katana and Killer Croc....who really cares?
I'm sure this same logic will help Shazam. While beloved by old-school readers like myself.....to the general audience, he's an unknown. He's....Ant-Man. I mean, Aquaman is better known than Shazam to 95% of the movie going audience.
And Aquaman's an asshat.
reply
share