A Geeky Viewpoint

DC Universe

Warner Bros. has announced a schedule through 2020 of ten movies set with the DC Comics Universe, starting with next springs Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and concluding with Green Lantern in 2020.

 

It's ambitious, to say the least, and it is clearly an attempt to emulate the success of rival Marvel Studios.   The question on every ones mind, okay would you accept the bloggers' minds, is will Warner Bros. be successful?

 

As a blogger I feel it is my necessity to define what would be successful for Warner Bros.

As a business the most important key stats are on the financial side of the house.  Success is measured in four key areas; Return on Investment, Opening Domestic Box Office, Domestic Box Office, and Worldwide Box Office.

There is also critical successes and audience success both are measures of how well the respective groups receive the film.

 

As Warner Bros is attempting to emulate Marvel Studios what are Marvels Bench Marks. 

Return on Investment - 290%

Opening Domestic Box Office - $98 Million

Domestic Box Office - $294 Million

World Wide Box Office - $610 Million

Critical Success - 78 (out of 100)

Audience Success - 85 (out of 100)

 

The First Movie Man of Steel generally meets the goals financially but for all intensive purposes failed both critically and with the audience.   The problem is Superman is DC's Iron Man supposed to be something to build the franchise around.  The next movie Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice has dealt with a lot of negativity from casting choices to leaked images to delays.     It is not inspiring confidence.

 

From behind the scenes more stories of lack of clear leadership, mistrust and exploitation of development staff continue to erode faith in Warner Bros.   

 

Unlike Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige there is no one person in charge of the DC Cinematic Universe.   Each movie is an independent entity with no check and balances between them as a whole.  Working in such a vacuum has created a system of mistrust between the various development teams at Warner Bros.  Staff from one film is apparently less willing to work with another film.

 

All that said it is a story that recently made a small ripple that bothers me.   It appears the Warner Bros. is creating an open competition between various groups, without actually telling the competitors.  I real live Rat Race.   Made worse by the fact that Warner Bros is making it unequal challenges between the various groups.   A writer speaking anonymously suggested that at least three groups were brought in to write a first draft of a script for a movie.   Each group was given various requirements for the scripts once the draft were collected one (or more) groups were eliminated and various elements of all the scripts became requirements for the rewrites.   As long as everyone knows what's going on no one really should have a problem for this; however according to the source that is clearly not the case.    This transgression is apparently making it harder to woo talent to work on the development of new movies.

 

There are many fans out there that would like to see a real competitor to Marvel Cinematic Universe dominance.   Recent statements by Marvel indicating that they have no intent to go "dark" has given the DC Universe an in to be competitive.  

 

In my opinion if Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice received solid marks from the fans and goes on to be a very successful movie financially, in the Iron Man 3 level of successful, the issues at Warner Bros. will quickly be forgotten, at this point I have a hard time believing Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice will out perform Man of Steel, which throws a huge wrench into the works.