I have never seen more misinformation and disinformation revolving around a movie in a long time. James Gunn's Superman is all over the map in regards to discourse from a political context and film criticism context. I'm not going to harp on those because I don't have much to add to the discussions. But what I am going to do is talk about the box-office context.
Is Superman a failure or a success?
While it is still too soon to declare it definitively as the movie has come nowhere near close to finishing its theatrical run, there are some things that do seem pretty likely. For instance, it is likely that this movie is going to struggle to make $600 million dollars worldwide when all is said and done.
Naturally, that would put it significantly behind Man of Steel and The Batman. So clearly it's a failure.
But then, you have to consider the context of what is going on with Warner Bros and the DC brand. They are in a rebuilding phase. It's not terribly different from, say, the NFL, when you have a team that is beyond hopeless that needs to cut a lot of its personnel and replace its current head coach. The next season is going to be very rough as a result. You can't expect the team to go 13-4 and make the playoffs. More often than not, that record is gonna be flipped. Growing pains are necessary and losses are going to be inevitable.
Such is the case with Superman. There's a not insignificant chance that Warner Brothers is going to barely break even on this film, if not outright lose money. That's the game. It's a shame, and almost certainly the suits and shareholders really wanted a billion dollar movie. Especially with a lot of the hype that was surrounding the film because of trailer views, everyone on Reddit acting as if this was going to be the superhero cinematic equivalent of James Cameron's Avatar, but reality is often a bitch.>>212652662 Superman will make a billion dollars.Again, the DC brand was tarnished beyond belief. As some people pointed out, this is very much a Batman Begins situation. Actually, it's even worse than Batman Begins, as a lot of DC's flops are not exactly as far behind in years as Batman & Robin was to Batman Begins.
Rome did not fall in a day and it was certainly not built in a day. Superman has not leapt over a tall building in a single bound. He has barely kept his head above water. But considering that the DC brand was drowning prior to his arrival, that's progress. As sad as it is to say, that IS progress. They've gotten a great reception with critics, a great reception with the audience, a great reception with fans. For now, that has to be good enough.
The same thing will have to be expected with some of these other films that James Gunn has lined up. Whether you're talking about Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, there's gonna be some uphill climbing.
And there's no guarantee that what's over the horizon is a billion dollar Justice League film. It could be that there is really no chance that this brand will ever build itself back up again or becomes a successful as the once mighty MCU. Hollywood has changed significantly. The landscape in all directions is no longer what it was. Marvel itself is no longer what it once was. But, if there is any chance of growth for the DC Universe moving forward, then Zaslav and co. will have to trust the process, be patient, and hope for the best.>>212652662 tl;dr kys yammering faggotall these words and you can’t see the gotg legs this movie clearly has>>212652685 In order to make a billion dollars, Superman desperately needs the international box-office to show up. It's doing well domestically, but not well enough to hit the billion dollar mark.>>212652662 >MUH IMMIGRANT! >flop opps!>>212652698 tl;dr kys yammering faggotFantastic 4 will utterly rape Superman until his legs give out, figuratively and literslly
