Napoleon

Speaking of X-Men I'm still waiting for the day people will recognize Dark Phoenix as the good movie that it is. I have a fair amount of movies I love that a lot of people hated (like The Happening, Sucker Punch, Matrix Resurrections, etc.) but all of them have many other defenders. I seem to be alone on Dark Phoenix. I can't be crazy. Except for the third act, which was reshot, the rest of the movie has a practical look to it that I really appreciate in this era of everything looking so CGI-heavy. And I think Jessica Chastain and Sophie Turner are amazing in it. I need to find people to back me up on this. Please, even Halloween Ends has its defenders 😭

Basically the entire DCEU slate from Walter Hamada flopped at the box office.

Zack Snyder wrote the story for the first Wonder Woman, was a hands-on producer and at the time of development and production was still the architect of the DCEU, while having no involvement with the sequel. Not to take any credit from Patty Jenkins, because the main reason that first movie worked so well was the emotion and sensibility that resonated with audiences in a way Snyder's movies weren't able to, and that heart was still present in WW84 and it was its biggest strength. But the ridiculous and silly plot was a huge flaw in the movie, and in my opinion Snyder's ideal of grounding these movies in reality was an important element that eventually was missed in WW84. You may disagree with that but I don't think you can ignore how heavily involved he was in that first Wonder Woman film.

The biggest DC movie of all time at the worldwide box office was Aquaman, which came out after BVS, so the theory that audiences would never give the DCEU another chance after that movie just doesn't hold up. And to balance things out, Aquaman also came out after Snyder left, so audiences were not mad at that either. At the end of the day, every DC fan should just accept the fact that general audiences just aren't as passionate about Snyder as they thing, one way or the other.

That would actually be pretty good for Blue Beetle, it has a $120m budget. The high end of that projection would make it profitable theatrically, and even the low end would still make it lose a lot less money than The Flash, Shazam 2, The Suicide Squad, and probably Black Adam as well.

If a big budget movie has a shorter runtime these days is almost a bad sign that it has been taken over from the director - examples being The New Mutants, Dark Phoenix, Justice League, Morbius, Fantastic Four, Aeon Flux, Chaos Walking, The Mummy... all plagued by reshoots. Star Wars movies are usually an exception - Rogue One, Solo, The Rise of Skywalker kept a long running time.

I actually think the Dark Universe was a good idea. The problem was the execution of The Mummy (and some terrible casting choices…)

It's ok that you feel that about Snyder. But him endorsing the reboot and his fans supporting it wouldn't change anything for you. The movies wouldn't have to face so much negativity online, though. And selling a few more tickets wouldn't hurt them either.

43% on Rotten Tomatoes after 35 reviews

It's a good thing that Gunn seems to be trying to get in good terms with the Snyderverse fans by seeking support from Snyder and Ayer. There's no point in alienating that fandom. I always defended that DC could move on from Snyder without making fans feel like what they loved was being disrespected. Even the more passionate Snyder haters will continue to support Gunn's DCU, because no matter what, they'll still want it to be more successful than the Snyderverse. This is the smart thing to do.

No, it was delayed to February 14

DEADLINE: What is your assessment of the box office return so far for Mission? CLOTH: We’re hopeful that the movie legs out and performs solidly through the rest of summer and hits the numbers that Fallout reached. The average Mission movie does 4.7 times its opening weekend. They tend not to be front-loaded. It’s more of a slow burn. I predict there will be some solid holds all the way into September. DEADLINE: If it gets to nearly five times its opening weekend you’ll all be very happy, I’m sure. That looks challenging… CLOTH: It’s an expensive movie. It was built to do that. There was almost no other direction for it to take — it had to be one of the biggest-grossing movies of the year. DEADLINE: Very expensive, yes. If the $290M budget is accurate that would rank it in the top 15 most expensive movies all time…Have you been surprised by the box office performance of Barbie and would it have been less risky for Mission to open on a date further from that and Oppenheimer? CLOTH: We believed Barbie would be a huge hit, but were still taken back by the enormity of the cultural phenomenon surrounding it. Looking at the summer 2023 box office, we all knew it was going to be a highly competitive frame and have always trusted and maintained confidence in Paramount’s releasing strategies. DEADLINE: Just looking from the outside, it could be said that none of Babylon, Dungeons & Dragons or Transformers have taken off at the box office. Mission, it remains to be seen, but it probably hasn’t done as brilliantly as hoped out of the gate. Do your core investors get spooked by those box office numbers? And if not, does that give credence to some people’s views that have been aired during the strike that ultimately studios never lose? CLOTH: The studios certainly can lose. But box office isn’t the only barometer for success these days. Box office might be a bit lower but that might be a trend, not something that’s unique to these movies. Transactional business is way, way up, but that’s not reported on as much. Box office is one of around eight windows of revenue that these films generate, so the mix is just different nowadays. ‘Mission Impossible’ Financier C2 Is Quietly Backing Paramount Movies – Deadline

Don’t know if this information has been revealed before, but it’s the first time I’m hearing this. David Ayer claims James Gunn told him he intends to release his original cut of 2016’s Suicide Squad one day.

I think the Transformers concept just doesn’t justify that many movies. I don’t think Michael Bay is responsible for the decline of the franchise, but I also don’t think it would be in better shape had he continued directing these movies. Unless they come up with a creative way to use this brand and characters, there’s no director who can make audiences excited for Transformers again, because these movies all seem like kinda the same thing over and over.

It was a decision probably made by both of them. When Amber Heard was cast in January 2016, Zack Snyder was called the architect of the DCEU by the press, and James Wan was already hired to direct Aquaman. During the interviews for Aquaman, Heard was always talking about how Snyder convinced her that the Mera role wasn't a damsel in distress, which she feared would be the case because she wasn't familiar with the comics. It also seems that both of them stand by this decision, as Snyder brought her back for the additional scenes in his cut of Justice League and she posted a picture of a personal message from Wan welcoming her to the Aquaman 2 set, at a time when there was already an online petition with millions of signatures demanding her to be fired and she was being harassed on social media.

I think the worst decision of all was making all movies standalone, and have basically no connectivity between movies at all. This is kinda controversial, because we're supposed to defend the art of cinema, and shared universes with one movie promoting the next is corporate filmmaking at its worst. But these movies were still being made by committee in an attempt to replicate Marvel's success, except that WB decided to strip the DCEU out off of one of the main reasons why the MCU was so consistent at the box office. They succeeded with standalone movies that were set outside of the DCEU and allowed filmmakers to realize their vision (The Batman, Joker), but for a shared universe it would never work. Without larger storylines, build-up and crossovers, these are just purposeless, inconsequential adventures of the week.

Black Adam didn't do as well as Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart make it sound in the interview, but when you look at in the the context of the DCEU, and compared to the movies released before (Birds of Prey, The Suicide Squad) and after it (Shazam 2, The Flash) we start to appreciate how it performed. It's clear this shared universe has been awfully managed in recent years, they've made some stupid decisions that have completely killed their audience's excitement, and Black Adam opening to $67 million and almost reaching $400m worldwide without China was actually very strong in that context.

The Snyder tweet is close to 15 million views.

I couldn't verify because his account is private, but fans are reporting that the director responded: James Gunn also retweeted. We'll finally achieve peace in the DCEU/DCU fandom?

I need to see a trailer before making any predictions but I believe in the potential for next year’s Snow White. That story is already so tired that the more subversive this live action is, the more appealing it will likely be. Gal Gadot is one of the biggest movie stars in the world no matter how much Film Twitter hates her.

If Superman Legacy does poorly, that would only continue to make the numbers for the DCEU movies before Justice League all the more desirable to WB. So it wouldn't be really surprising if they decide to bring the Snyderverse back. They'll probably be desperate if the James Gunn reboot doesn't work as they hope. It would be ridiculous if they try yet another reboot after that.

There was a TV series, which apparently was a sequel to the original film, but only lasted for 2 seasons on Fox between 2016 and 2017.