Can Wonder Woman Save DC’s Cinematic Universe?
Well, that was quite the weekend.
Kong: Skull Island exceeded expectations and grossed 61 million dollars at the domestic office, knocking last weekend’s champ Logan down a notch to second place (Kong can’t rest on his laurels though since his return cost Warner Bros. 185 million to make-and that’s before a sizeable advertising and promotion budget). Don’t feel bad for Logan though. While Wolverine’s final solo film brought in 38.1 million in its second weekend, it has collected over 153 million domestically in just ten days of release and has grossed nearly a quarter billion dollars worldwide.
Get Out continues to impress with over 111 million dollars to its domestic name (Jordan Peele’s directorial debut was made for less than 5 million) in a mere three weeks and Lionsgate’s religious release The Shack continues to hold its own with 32.2 million in only two weeks as well. The Lego Batman Movie now has over 158 million to its name and the Oscar nominated Hidden Figures and La La Land (which was 2016’s Best Picture for about 24 seconds) continue to hold down spots in the top ten weeks after their release. Both films have firmly broken the century mark and prove that audiences haven’t abandoned story and character driven stories yet.
But let’s be honest, the thing everyone was talking about last weekend was the new Wonder Woman trailer. Which begs the question, can DC and Warner Bros. finally hit one out of the park and can the Amazon princes correct the DCEU’s dangerous course?
Video Warner Bros. Pictures
Make no mistake, DC has made plenty of money with their releases, but one can argue that they haven’t made enough (or at least matched expectations). The first big screen meeting between Batman and Superman, the two greatest comic book icons on the planet, was expected to do Avengers type business and easily join the billion-dollar club. It’s massive opening seemed to cement that belief further, yet BvS’s box office plummeted following it’s first weekend and it failed to even make 900 million.
While Suicide Squad managed to hold down the box office’s top spot its fist three weekends, it also saw an enormous 67% plunge in its second weekend gross and failed to meet the expectations it’s record breaking opening weekend created. And if you go back to 2013’s Man of Steel (the first entry in DC’s fledgling cinematic universe), Supes saw an eyebrow-raising drop of 64% in his second weekend numbers. The rumour is Warner Bros. decided to team the Man of Steel up with the Dark Knight Detective instead of doing a dedicated Superman sequel because they were underwhelmed by MoS’s final box office tally and concerned by the dubious fan reception.
And all three of those movies were (and continue to be) polarizing among both movie and comic book fans alike. Say what you want about Marvel movies (and some of them deserve a hefty amount of criticism), but they hardly generate the kind of angry backlash among fans and critics that DC’s entries have so far. Fans have even dubbed the current slate of DC’s films the “Murderverse” based on its heroes’ penchant for killing (or ignoring the fatal consequences of their actions).
Everyone involved in the DCEU-from directors to producers to the actors themselves-have been content to dismiss the backlash so far, but you can only willfully disregard anemic Rotten Tomato scores, critical vilification and fan dissatisfaction for so long. The more it happens, the more damage it does to your brand and the Internet is filled with people declaring that if Wonder Woman fails to deliver, they’re done with DC altogether (more on that later).
But this may just be the tip of the iceberg of DC’s woes. Aside from this year’s Wonder Woman (June 2nd) and Justice League (November 17th), DC really only has one other film in the pike with Aquaman (scheduled for an October 2018 release). And honestly, how much hype currently surrounds the King of Atlantis’ solo movie? Sure, DC has other tentative dates on their calendar, but the operative word in that sentence is tentative.
They still have The Flash on the docket for March of 2018, but that film has already had several directors abandon the project over creative differences and the script is currently being rewritten (the director’s chair still remains vacant). Shazam is still penciled in for April of 2019, but outside of casting Dwayne Johnson as the villainous Black Adam nothing else has been finalized. In fact, DC was recently tripping over itself announcing that they’ve decided to give Black Adam his own movie following Shazam, yet Shazam still doesn’t have a script, a director or a lead. Ditto for the Cyborg movie currently slated for April 2020.
There is perhaps no better example of DC’s troubling state of affairs than the ongoing saga of The Batman solo movie. Weeks ago Ben Affleck announced that he was relinquishing the directing reins so he could focus on playing the Dark Knight. After a brief game of name that director, DC announced it was replacing Affleck with Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, War for the Planet of The Apes). But then all of a sudden he wasn’t after negotiations apparently stalled. And then he was again. To rub salt in this particular wound, rumours surfaced amidst all this that Affleck might want out completely. And remember, DC moved Justice League 2 back to accommodate The Batman, a movie now so embattled it may not even get made.
Affleck (who is to DC what Robert Downey Jr. is to Marvel) and Batman were seen as the lynchpins holding the already fragile DCEU together. If his enthusiasm is indeed fading, what could that mean for the future of DC on the silver screen?
Is it possible DC and Warner Bros. could crank all these movies out in time to meet these dates? Sure, but they would be forced to take a hasty cookie cutter approach that would likely leave a bad taste in even the most hardcore fan’s mouth. Beyond the aforementioned titles, DC has offered nothing more than nebulous tidbits and vague dates. DC and Warner brass have thrown the fans plenty of bones recently, announcing a Lobo movie and a Nightwing one as well as Deadshot and Sirens of Gotham City spinoffs from last year’s Suicide Squad. They’ve even teased a Justice League Dark movie but it all feels like rapid-fire distraction to cover up how shaky the foundation of their once vaunted cinematic universe has become. And that’s where Wonder Woman comes in.
Hype for this movie has been building since its first trailer dropped at last summer’s Comic Con. And it hasn’t slowed. The release of the latest trailer lit social media on fire and dominated the entertainment news cycle (it was viewed over 4.7 million times on Warner Bros. You Tube channel in just 48 hours) and while many fans remain cautious, anticipation continues to build. In short, and as corny and cheesy as it sounds, Wonder Woman has given fans hope again and may breathe precious life back into the DC movies.
Remember those aforementioned fans who were considering Wonder Woman DC’s final potential strike? If this movie can deliver with both fans and critics (something DC hasn’t been able to do yet), it could buy the DCEU another chance and repair the brand. Some fans may stick around longer while others may either return to the fold or check DC out for the first time. And who knows, Gal Gadot could become the new face of DC, easing the stress on everyone else’s shoulders. Maybe it could even re-energize a possibly restless Affleck. A successful Wonder Woman movie would essentially provide DC and Warner Bros. a much-needed new line of credit with increasingly cynical audiences.
If it can also turn out to be a critically acclaimed blockbuster while being the first super hero movie starring a female super hero in the lead, beating Marvel to the punch by nearly two years (the House of Ideas is releasing Captain Marvel in April of 2019), well that wouldn’t be a bad feather for DC to have in its hat either.
Image Warner Bros. Pictures
