Admittedly, conundrum might be an odd word to describe this situation but stick with me here. I bring up this situation as we as a society dominated by pop culture enter a time where our favorite comic properties, games, and books are being optioned into big Hollywood blockbusters. And lets be honest, there's only one entity that is managing to pull this off successfully while raking in buckets of cash at the same time; that being Marvel Studios. This Hollywood juggernaut went from being a fledgling studio banking its hopes and dreams on a big screen adaption of Iron Man in 2008 to a studio powerhouse with a multi-threaded universe that has thus far grossed over $7 billion dollars at the box office. And the most impressive feat here is that they've done this all without even owning the movie rights to the most popular characters on their comic book roster as the X-Men rights are tied up with Fox while the rights to Spider-Man belong to Sony.
You're probably wondering where DC stands in all of this. Well, DC has been partnered with Warner Bros for years and we have seen many DC related movies in recent years; from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy to Zack Snyder's Superman reboot, Man of Steel. DC is cranking out movies just as much as Marvel is, but they haven't quite gotten the same kind of buzz. What makes it odd is that it's not for lack of trying and it certainly isn't because of the stable of characters DC has access to. DC being partnered with WB means that the full roster of characters is available to them. What seems to have happened is that the only properties that seem viable to them are Batman and Superman. You might say sure, there was that failed Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds and I would be likely to agree if it weren't for the fact that it was just outright a terrible movie.
And therein lays the difference between the two approaches to this scenario. Marvel from the get go had a singular vision for this on screen universe they wanted to build. Each movie was a bigger gamble than the last. As mentioned above, Marvel's two heavy hitter properties aren't even theirs to use on film. This forced them to create a strategy of elevating what were essentially B-list characters into the spotlight; characters that were known but not exactly popular. Characters that actually have some fairly convoluted origin stories but people bought in wholeheartedly. And to this day it continues to be a gamble because any one movie could derail this whole thing as each film is threaded together. The gamble however is paying dividends so far as Marvel has managed to elevate characters like Ant-Man, The Vision, and the Guardians into the mainstream. It's worked out to the point that Sony's failings with the Spider-Man property led to a partnership with Marvel, landing one of their most profitable and recognizable characters appearing in this year's Captain America: Civil War.
On the other end of the spectrum, DC truly tried to jump start their extended universe this year with the release of the Zack Snyder directed Batman vs Superman. The subtitled "Dawn of Justice" was the launching point for DC's long term plan to bring the Justice League to the big screen much in the way Marvel brought the Avengers to the screen 4 years ago. The movie was overstuffed with characters, poorly paced, and had some jarring characterizations for the main heroes. In the end, critics were not very pleased but the movie still earned quite a bit of money at the box office both domestically and abroad. Fast forward to August of this year and WB/DC has released the next entry in their extended universe with Suicide Squad. And yet again the studio is faced with a movie that is poorly received by critics and fans alike but still has enough mainstream support that it'll still have a successful box office run.
The main problem here is that Marvel generally has yet to make a movie that absolutely bombs with critics. Generally all of Marvel's movies have been well received by fans and critics alike. That is part of the reason why they have been so successful so far. Thus far, Warner Bros has pumped out three movies in this extended universe and only one of them holds a Rotten Tomatoes rating above a 50%. And before you get the wrong idea, it's not Rotten Tomatoes doing the reviewing; they're just an aggregator for reviews that have been done by a wide array of outlets. The consensus of which results in the actual rating. Brand marketing has been strong enough to carry these initial outings to semi profitable runs in theaters but that can only last for so long if they continue to put out such divisive movies. Fan reaction and word of mouth has caused steep declines in the second weekend takes for both BvS and Suicide Squad. This doesn't bode well moreso from the standpoint that the studio is rumored to have made adjustments to the cut for Suicide Squad as a result of the reaction to BvS. What they ended up with is just as messy if not worse than what Snyder gave us in March.
It's interesting to see the two different philosophies at work though. The Marvel cinematic universe is Kevin Feige's baby and he's been guiding that ship along with a handful of very talented directors and actors. Together they've pulled off something comic fans thought would be impossible. But here we are years later with two Avengers movies under their collective belts and barreling towards two more. And don't take this as any sort of brand bias; I love Marvel but I also love and respect DC. I've been a major fan of their animated entries for years. WB's live action entries though just leave a bit to be desired. Part of that I believe falls down to the fact that the guy leading the charge is Zack Snyder and he kind of doesn't get what makes these characters so great. Superman, as much as I don't like the character, is iconic. The name alone will sell. But Man of Steel is a good representation of what's wrong with this DC extended universe. It takes one of the most beloved comic characters of all time and strips away a lot of what makes that character so appealing. And it does this in favor of splash panel shots and cool effects. Visually stunning? Yes. The characterization of Clark/Superman is all wrong though and it leaves fans underwhelmed. Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad basically double down on this.
So we're left with two deuling franchises. One is thriving and well into its stride while the other is flailing. Not a terrible impact on anyone but the studio itself. Eventually though this will have an impact on the movie going audience as interest in comic adaptations wanes. We have now reached a place where there are at least 5-6 comic book based movies releasing every year. When the quality of these movies starts to dip, so will the interest. The success of Marvel Studios should have directly correlated to Warner Brothers making equal buckets of cash by turning their DC properties into blockbusters. The fan interest is there but the quality is not. Soon that bubble will burst and if WB can't course correct their ship then they'll not only lose out, they'll be the ones to crash that viable market. It's time for Warner Brothers to take a step back and reevalutate their strategy. Instead of chasing that Avengers money they need to focus on putting together a cohesive universe and quality movies. Doing that will bring out the fans which in turn will lead to the profits they seek. It's not about just following a model built by Feige and Marvel and moreso respecting the source material and fans. Once they do that the rest will fall into place.
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