A Light at the End of the Tunnel for the DCEU?

Since the huge backlash at the reception of Batman V Superman, Corporate suits at WB have heard the outcry of the fans and movie critics and said that they will begin making changes to their DCEU. Before any of those changes could be made, they had to live with the decisions of the past that continued to haunt them with the signing of Zack Snyder to that 3-movie deal and creative control over DC properties.

That trickled down into The Suicide Squad. SS (Suicide Squad) was released in August of 2016, opening with a commanding 133 million dollar opening weekend at the box office. Sadly, like many Dc movies, that didn't last long as SS suffered a massive drop in it's second week of sales by 67%. That's almost identical to the drop off that Batman V. Superman had in the previous year. SS was met with huge critical backlash. It was criticized for trying to be too much like Marvel's films with it obvious edits and chops to make the movie appear more lighthearted. The deleted scenes were obvious and took away from the consistency of the film as a whole, the villain left much to be desired and the story was and overall mess when it came to pace. It felt like it was two different movies smashed together from two different directors. There were many reports that Jared Leto was disappointed with all of the corporate fingers in the creative cookie jar. Leto was upset with WB for making the director (David Ayer) edit out scenes of the Joker character out of the film totally. There were even scenes that were shown in the trailers that didn't even make the final cut into the actual movie! it's a sad case to see.

There is hope though. Many reports have surfaced saying that Zack Snyder's days at WB are numbered and WB will NOT be renewing their contract with the director of Batman V. Superman and Man OF Steel. This shows me that WB knows that hiring Zack Snyder and giving him so much power was a huge mistake and they are ready to move on from his dark and gloomy vision of what the DCEU should be, and actually make the DCEU according to what we (the fans) want. There are two people that are here to save the DCEU.

Ben Affleck. He is a HUGE Batman fan who is said to have his own Bat Cave in his home. He played one of the greatest Batman adaptations of all time and has the passion and desire to do whats right with the character. Batman was probably the best part of Batman V. Superman. He is a great director, he won an Oscar for "Argo" for best director.  He was genuinely sad when he heard the bad reviews of Batman V. Superman because he put so much effort into that character only to have it sullied by the mediocrity that is Zack Snyder. WB has seen great potential in Ben Affleck, so much to the point that they made him the executive producer of the upcoming Justice League movie, which happens to be Snyder's last film in the DCEU. This tells me that WB no longer trusts Snyder and they want Ben Affleck to take his place at the helm of future productions, so when Snyder tries to do something stupid in the Justice League movie, Ben will be there with a Batman jab to the ribs to keep Snyder in line.

WB isn't stopping there. They have hired Geoff Johns, a long time writer for DC Comics as the new President of the DCEU. This means that all major decisions will be heard and approved by him. This helps for creating a cohesive universe that all movies can blend together into (kind of like Marvel's Kevin Feige). With these two seemingly competent leaders at the helm of the DCEU, there is a very bright light at the end of the tunnel for WB. This is a excellent business decision on the behalf of WB because they started to right the wrongs and listened to the people and made the necessary adjustments to get back on track. The better the president. the better the company. Now I believe that the Justice League will bring in the big bucks. I predict with the new talent pit into place by WB, that Justice League will gross over 1 billion dollars, with  the Wonder Woman standalone film grossing 800 million (both films to be released in 2017). Even more important than that, the movies will appease us fans of these beloved characters. With these two men at the helm of the DCEU I feel much better with the future of WB properties.

The Mishaps Continue...

Thirdly, WB signed Zack Snyder to a three-movie deal. Why WB would hire a director (that is not known for his prowess of storytelling) to tell some of the greatest stories in American pop-culture is beyond me. It doesn't make business sense either. In business, you hire the most qualified candidate for the job, usually using their prior work experience in the required field as a barometer on how effectively the candidate can perform the required tasks. This logic was just thrown out of the window in WB case when they decided to give Snyder total control over the whole DCEU! I'm not mad that they gave Snyder a chance at directing a DC movie, I'm mad that not only did they give him a three year deal, but they gave him full creative control over the entire DCEU! That's insane!

Proud Snyder

Snyder then released Batman V Superman in March, 2015......sigh. This movie was released to a critical disaster, scoring a measly 27% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie was no box office bomb either, it made a decent 872 million dollars to date worldwide. Lets think about that figure though, is 872 million really what we expected this movie to make? no. WB was initially pleased with the first weekend box office tally because it broke records for highest grossing weekend release in the month of march, but those numbers came to a stiff halt, dropping a record 81% in its second week of release. Do you know what that means? it means that people were hyped for this movie because its freaking Batman and Superman and went to go see the film, but most of them hated it and didn't spread the word of mouth needed to make a strong second week in the box office.

why was this made?

This movie was a dis
aster! they made Superman a dark, gloomy, robotic, cold-hearted person who didn't seem to care much about the people he was sent here to protect. He was unsure of himself and didn't have faith in his fathers teachings form Man Of Steel. The people accused him of being a murderer and he just hid away like a convicted criminal! This movie should never have been made. Snyder chose to not make Man Of Steel 2 and opted to pit the two greatest icons of all time against each other instead. Why Zack? After this movie was destroyed by critics and fans alike, it seems like the the whole cast went into hiding  because there were no interviews granted,  Jesse Eisenberg and his terrible portrayal of Lex Luthor (or his son, smh) still haunts my dreams to this date. Henry Cavill delivered a cold uninspired performance as well as many supporting cast members. Doomsday?? Please don't get me started on that walking, roaring disappointment.  Lawrence Fishburne was my favorite character in the movie and that's sad. I can go on all day about the inconsistencies in this movie but my doctor told me to stay away from stress.

Greedy Corporations

It's just bad business here. It was the carelessness of WB business model that led to these failures and potential loss of billions of dollars! Batman V Superman should have made at least 1.5 Billion alone! Man OF Steel should have made at least 1 billion just  off getting the characters right and who they are. That's 2.5 billion dollars of potential that only netted WB 1.54 billion dollars for those two films. The next entry I will discuss their last mistake and what can be done to right the ship. Stay tuned.

How Warner Bros. Made Their 1st Big Mistake.

The First mistake that WB has made was the act that they tried to start the "Original DCEU" off with Green Lantern. I love Green Lantern; don't get me wrong, he is an amazing superhero, but you don't' start off an extended universe of D.C. Comics characters without the heart of their whole business model. Superman is the leader of the Justice League. Batman is one of the most popular superheroes on the planet as well. The fact that WB attempted to launch a DCEU without Superman and Batman is a travesty.


The Second Mistake was that WB never really knew that they were going to form a full fledged DCEU (DC Extended Universe). When they green lit Green Lantern in 2009, they didn't expect it to fail as terribly as it did, so that made them scrap their initial plans of even having a DCEU. This around the same time that Marvel was kicking off their MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with Ironman and The Incredible Hulk, both being released in 2008. Instead of the corporate suits at WB creating a sound business model for outlining their next DC property releases, they sat on their hands and let Marvel dominate the box office for the next five years! It is a travesty when you think about it. When one business competitor decides to sit on the sideline for the second half of a playoff game and expects their to be no major consequences is insane!

Enter the Man of Steel! In Summer 2013, WB released Man Of Steel which was greeted by commercial success, but wasn't as much a critical success. Many Superman fans were upset about the dark tone that was put upon their "Big Boy Blue" and lashed out at director Zack Snyder, who was known for many gritty and ominous-tone films (300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch). Zack Snyder was praised for his work on Watchmen because he captured the dark-themed tone of that film to perfection, but that same tone does not apply to Superman. Superman is a lighthearted character that need to shine bright! Superman is the beacon of hope, truth, justice and the American way, not some emotionless zombie that doesn't even know if he wants to help people like he was depicted in Man Of Steel. WB released Man Of Steel without any plans to have him be apart of a DCEU, which explains for the lack of future tie-ins to future DC properties and franchises within the film itself. Because Man Of Steel was a commercial success WB decided at taht point that they were going to make a DCEU, with the first phase of films leading to a Justice League movie in 2017. This only spelled the beginning of the overall disaster that is ahead.

These were WB first two mistakes that started their DCEU off on shaky ground. I will post more points on their other mistakes and what their competition (Marvel) has done amidst all this chaos in my next posts. Stay Tuned.