EdgeLord4Lyf

DCEU Ranking : Top tier : Man of Steel, ZSJL, BvS UE, Wonder Woman Good : Aquaman, Shazam Mediocre : WW 1984, The Flash, Shazam 2, Black Adam, TSS, BOP Disgrace : Suicide Squad, Josstice League

I dont think so. I think Gunn is being opportunistic and seeing what sticks. That's why he's keeping TSS/Peacemaker stuff. Would have kept Zachary Levi if Shazam 2 didnt flop, same with Ezra. That's why they are keeping the door open with Jason, in the offchance Aquaman 2 breaks big(it wont). Same with Blue Beetle somehow being "part of the DCU" but not the "first film of the DCU". It all depends on if the movie flops or not, if they do, they will be discarded. I assure you in coming weeks WB will scapegoat Ezra Miller for this movie, throw him under the bus, and move on. They have already started the hit-pieces in the trades. Also, Gunn announcing the reboot so early, basically made these DCEU movies dead on arrival. Nobody cares, why will they. Bad move.

Think this movie will end up in the 400-500M range. Considering a production budget of 220M and marketing of ~125M, this movie probably needs to hit around 600M to break even.

The DCEU was never designed to be like MCU at all, the creators have said that many times. It had a beginning and end like TDKT, and was meant to be rebooted after Snyder's JL3 in 2020. It was 5 chapters, like LOTR or Harry Potter. With solo spinoffs, unlike the MCU where the solo films all lead into larger ensemble films. MCU is this long saga with over 20 films, the whole format was different. Snyder's whole pitch to DC was lets do something different than Marvel, because we cant compete on that front, they have that nailed down. While they do the action/comedy with heart, DC can do the epic LOTR esque mythological story. Obviously WB changed courses midway rightly or wrongly that's not the point. Now yeah, it was ofcourse designed to be WB's cash cow aping the MCU, but thats from an exec pov. All I'm saying is the storytelling approach was completely different. The DCEU certainly had the potential to be financially succesful, certainly to a much higher level than now. I have to ask, if WW and Aquaman(which came relatively sooner after BvS) were able to be successful, why did the movies after that fail to do so? My answer is the movies themselves and the worldbuilding approach were not compelling enough. There would be more interest in a JL2 or a MOS2 than a BOP/Shazam movie, but WB played defence.

Zack Snyder left WB 6 years ago. There's been 10 DCEU movies between The Flash and BvS. If BvS is to blame for DC's image in 2023, that only means the last 7-8 DCEU movies did nothing to improve the brand image. Were they so mediocre/bland? Mind you, ZS has been gone a long time, these new movies have been critically well received, championed by DC fans as "step in the right direction", and WB has incorporated all the things fans vocally complained about like light tone, humor, bright colors etc, nostalgia etc. Yet, its the early DCEU movies that made money, and the latest batch of movies have all have lost money. So either the "Hamada-verse" was a failure as a "course-correction", or maybe a 8 year old movie is not at fault here. Mind you, Wonder Woman and Aquaman all came right after BvS, and were big hits. Its time we stop scapegoating, and place the blame where it really lies, WB. The Justice League mess, scrapping the shared Universe for low budget solos, massive cuts in editing, trying to ape MCU, the whole thing has been a mess. The DCEU was never meant to rival MCU as this neverending 20 film shared universe, it was a 5 chapter story, accompanied with solo spinoffs. Changing courses wildly midway was always going to fail. Should have just released Snyder's 2h45m cut in Nov 2017 and rebooted.

What does that imply Box Office wise for the General Audience? Does it mean the marketing wasnt strong enough for them? Does it mean they were not interested in the movie because of BvS? Or does it mean the negative critical reaction was a big factor? Honest question.