Anghus Houvouras on the reaction to Warner Bros.’ strategy for Justice League and the DC Cinematic Universe….
It pains me that I live in a world so stupid that Forbes has to write a piece on why a Justice League movie is financially sound.
We live in a time where familiar franchises are being sought and produced with reckless abandon. An age where Marvel has laid a significant amount of groundwork for successful comic book adaptations and tested the market again and again proving that we haven’t yet reached a saturation point for these movies. In the space between April and August we’ll have four different Marvel properties hitting the big screen, and if Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 are early indicators, audiences are still very interested in these kind of movies.
Everyone has speculated on just how Warner Bros. should be moving ahead with cinematic adaptations of their most iconic heroes (myself included). Very little of it is based on real data or facts, merely the speculation of armchair execs, who believe they know the right strategy for Warner Bros. to take their franchise. Many of the reactions (like this recent Nerdist piece here) are the kind of knee jerk reactions that desperately want to juxtapose the Marvel Movie Model onto their characters. Eric Diaz’s piece is interesting but ultimately awkward because it paints the entire DC Cinematic Universe into a corner that doesn’t really exist. There are a lot of writers out there who write from the position that Marvel’s success has become Warner Bros.’ failure even though they haven’t really left the gate.
The only honest criticism we can levy against Warner Bros. is that they have failed to capitalize on their competitor’s success. They have made very slow, very calculated moves with mixed results. Outside their two most iconic superheroes, they have played it extremely safe. After the crumbling fuselage of Green Lantern, it’s easy to understand. Marvel played their hand, made the big bets, and are reaping the reward. Warner Brothers is playing a markedly safer game with less interesting results.
But these discussions are so prone to overreaction. Warner Bros. is being labeled as failures before they can implement the next phase of their strategy. Everyone was bullish on the future of the DC Cinematic Universe when Warner Bros. announced Batman vs. Superman. Since then a lot of media writers have soured on the studio’s plans to a point somewhere just past ‘ludicrous speculation’. They’ve applied a pass/fail mentality to Batman vs. Superman and Justice League that is laughably rationalized. It’s like everybody has already forgotten the billions taken in by Batman and Superman before Marvel had even engineered the blueprints for Phase One.
The truth is Warner Bros. doesn’t need to be Marvel. They would love to have the kind of franchise revenue stream Marvel has, but if Batman vs. Superman and Justice League clear $800+ million per film, they’re still well worth the effort and perpetuate the brand. Everyone looks at the lack of DC output as a missed opportunity, but then everyone admits they can’t ape the Marvel model. So they lose no matter what. The idea that DC comics can’t be a healthy revenue stream for Warner Bros. because it doesn’t mirror Marvel is agonizingly insipid and shows just how short-sighted and hyperbolic the film wesbites have become.
It reminds me of when the iPhone first hit the market years back. Steve Jobs releases the iPhone and grabs a massive share of the market. Everyone declares that Apple has created a new paradigm and smashed the model to the point that no one else can compete. Some questioned whether anyone else in the marketplace had any chance at seizing market share. We all know how this story ends, or do we? Here we are years later and the world’s biggest smartphone supplier is actually not Apple but Samsung. How did that happen? Well, smart people can take a model, refine it, and still find success. It’s hard to say where it ends up, but everyone keeps acting like Warner Brothers has already ceded the race when the market clearly shows that there is space for multiple franchises with audiences hungry for this kind of product.
It’s easy to speculate wildly on what the future holds for the DC Cinematic Universe, but it’s also way early to be writing the obituary.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published April 30, 2014. Updated November 7, 2019.
