Justice League Justice League Box Office Prediction - Part 5

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[Tacit Ronin]

Rheeeeeeeeee!

 

[Flemm]

I certainly wouldn't deny that Avengers beating Justice League to the punch might be a factor, but I would find that idea more convincing if it were not for the following:

BvS had an 81M Friday opening, inflated somewhat by the holiday weekend, no doubt, but still similar to Avengers' 80.8M opening Friday.

And, secondly, Wonder Woman on her own was able to have an Iron Man-esque domestic box office run (actually somewhat better than the first IM, even adjusted for inflation), with an impressive worldwide total.

I think those comparisons make it likely that the potential for an Avengers-level success was certainly there, with proper handling.

Maybe not *more* than Avengers. That is probably much more hypothetical.

Obviously, we will never know for sure.

 

[Iceman]

I certainly wouldn't deny that Avengers beating Justice League to the punch might be a factor, but I would find that idea more convincing if it were not for the following:

BvS had an 81M Friday opening, inflated somewhat by the holiday weekend, no doubt, but still similar to Avengers' 80.8M opening Friday.

And, secondly, Wonder Woman on her own was able to have an Iron Man-esque domestic box office run (actually somewhat better than the first IM, even adjusted for inflation), with an impressive worldwide total.

I think those comparisons make it likely that the potential for an Avengers-level success was certainly there, with proper handling.

Maybe not *more* than Avengers, I think that is much more hypothetical.

Obviously, we will never know for sure.

The first time factor is gone but like you say the other factors balance it out. If JL had done the whole MCU thing first it might have been even bigger.

 

[DarkRitual]

There's definitely some validity to the idea that DC's characters are (or at least were) bigger names than Marvel's. Part of the inexplicability of Marvel's success is that they managed to build a hit brand using lesser known characters like Iron Man, the Guardians, Ant-Man, and so on (and continue to do so now with characters like Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Captain Marvel), while most of their A-listers like Spider-Man and Wolverine were off-limits. It was pretty much the Hulk, Captain America and maybe Thor.

But, I was never really confident that Justice League would be a 3 billion grosser or even outgross the Avengers. The Avengers changed the world in a way that won't ever happen again, and as a result, a lot of the novelty that would have come from seeing the Justice League united onscreen for the first time in history was automatically undercut, even if they are individually more popular or at least more recognizable than the various Avengers.

While I do definitely think the main problems have been outlined already, I wouldn't be surprised if that also played a part in hurting Justice League's chances.

What makes this truly astonishing is how hard it is in Hollywood to develop franchises period, whether based on something, or wholly original. And since 2008, Marvel has successfully developed SEVEN new film franchises. EIGHT if you want to count Avengers.

 

[Iceman]

What makes this truly astonishing is how hard it is in Hollywood to develop franchises period, whether based on something, or wholly original. And since 2008, Marvel has successfully developed SEVEN new film franchises. EIGHT if you want to count Avengers.

The GA nowadays seems reluctant to give new sci-fi films much of a chance. Existing franchises or projects based on already existing materials seem to be king. By creating a universe and making that the franchise, rather than just for eg Iron Man, Marvel have really put themselves into a strong position (one Disney is now copying with Star Wars and expanding that much more broadly). And the best thing about a universe franchise it is that there is no end date to it. It could just keep going if they keep it fresh and the quality high.

 

[jfurioso]

I certainly wouldn't deny that Avengers beating Justice League to the punch might be a factor, but I would find that idea more convincing if it were not for the following:

BvS had an 81M Friday opening, inflated somewhat by the holiday weekend, no doubt, but still similar to Avengers' 80.8M opening Friday.

And, secondly, Wonder Woman on her own was able to have an Iron Man-esque domestic box office run (actually somewhat better than the first IM, even adjusted for inflation), with an impressive worldwide total.

I think those comparisons make it likely that the potential for an Avengers-level success was certainly there, with proper handling.

Maybe not *more* than Avengers. That is probably much more hypothetical.

Obviously, we will never know for sure.

The thing is that BvS WAS Avengers in a way. It was the movie where you got Superman, Batman and WW in costume fighting together. We even had Flash and Aquaman and Cyborg cameo. It was Dawn of Justice-League-sorta.
So while Avengers broke the ground of gathering the heroes of the recent solo movies, BvS was the one that did the live action Superfriends gathering, so to speak. JL is like doing it again, more formally.

 

[MbJ]

It's a shame. This franchise is the epitome of wasted potential.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

It's a shame. This franchise is the epitome of wasted potential.

These characters deserve so much better.

 

[DarkRitual]

The GA nowadays seems reluctant to give new sci-fi films much of a chance. Existing franchises or projects based on already existing materials seem to be king. By creating a universe and making that the franchise, rather than just for eg Iron Man, Marvel have really put themselves into a strong position (one Disney is now copying with Star Wars and expanding that much more broadly). And the best thing about a universe franchise it is that there is no end date to it. It could just keep going if they keep it fresh and the quality high.

No doubt, but I went back from 2008 and found two or three successful blockbuster franchises per studio. Again, Marvel has up to EIGHT in the same period. Crazy that they have failed only once (Hulk), while most studios have at least one failed franchise starter ever year.

Looking back, Hulk was a bigger failure than anyone talks about: $150M budget, $263M haul.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Batman V. Superman ultimately killed this movie's chances of doing Avengers numbers, I think. The piss poor marketing campaign sure didn't help either.

 

[cristianegan]

Some people complain about the marketing but remember that 4 full trailers came out during the 16 month period leading to the release of the movie. That is definitely the opposite of "poor" marketing. Just a comparison, Avengers Infinity War is coming out in 6 months yet there is still no trailer or even a poster to speak of

 

[MahvelBaby!]

Some people complain about the marketing but remember that 4 full trailers came out during the 16 month period leading to the release of the movie. That is definitely the opposite of "poor" marketing. Just a comparison, Avengers Infinity War is coming out in 6 months yet there is still no trailer or even a poster to speak of

Quality>Quantity none of those 4 trailers really showed you much about the film. They his the villain for the most part (for good reason)

The early ones were showing Snyder's original version of the film.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Some people complain about the marketing but remember that 4 full trailers came out during the 16 month period leading to the release of the movie. That is definitely the opposite of "poor" marketing. Just a comparison, Avengers Infinity War is coming out in 6 months yet there is still no trailer or even a poster to speak of

I don't care how many trailers they put out. None of them did much to sell the movie as something special.

 

[Erzengel]

Some people complain about the marketing but remember that 4 full trailers came out during the 16 month period leading to the release of the movie. That is definitely the opposite of "poor" marketing. Just a comparison, Avengers Infinity War is coming out in 6 months yet there is still no trailer or even a poster to speak of

That first trailer that came out 16 months prior to JL's release was strictly a panic move by WB in order to create some good will that was lost because of BvS over half a year before.

 

[I Am The Knight]

The "we got jokes!" footage they released last year's CC was awful. This movie never looked good.

 

[cristianegan]

Every time one of those trailers came out, it instantly hit the number 1 trending on Youtube. Imagine 4 times hitting the roof like that, that is some insane massive exposure to the movie. I say in overall it was a great marketing campaign.

 

[Erzengel]

Doesn't saying the marketing plan was great make the JL box office performance even sadder?

 

[Matt]

Every time one of those trailers came out, it instantly hit the number 1 trending on Youtube. Imagine 4 times hitting the roof like that, that is some insane massive exposure to the movie. I say in overall it was a great marketing campaign.

Yep. Everyone wants to blame marketing when a movie flops. But we live in the digital era; the information age. No one is missing a movie because they are unaware of it. If a trailer doesn't give enough info, people google it. Even in terms of selecting bad footage for a trailer, this isn't 1992 when a movie had a teaser, two trailers, and nothing else. Clips are readily available from our phones at any given time. Clips of all nature are on twitter, FB, youtube, etc.

My point is, bad marketing isn't killing movies anymore because movies no longer need marketing to spread information. Marketing has nothing to do with this movie failing. The audience isn't responding for a reason and marketing doesn't have a damn thing to do with it.

 

[Reel-Man]

Seeing footage from the pirated movie all over online makes me wonder something. How many of those people shocked at the low box office numbers actually shared and watched it online.

 

[Creo]

Some people complain about the marketing but remember that 4 full trailers came out during the 16 month period leading to the release of the movie. That is definitely the opposite of "poor" marketing. Just a comparison, Avengers Infinity War is coming out in 6 months yet there is still no trailer or even a poster to speak of

Yes, it did have poor marketing, she Marvel's marketing is fine.

1. 4 trailers over a year and a half is not good, especially since they weren't appearing on TV until a few months ago. Releasing early trailers online is good for those invested in the universe like us, but doesn't do much for the GA who will forget the trailers a week later.

2. In the last year and a half, DC has only had SS, WW and JL with nothing on the horizon, while Marvel has had Dr. Stange, GotG, Spiderman, Thor, and Black Panther. They've been focusing their advertisement on upcoming movies, which serve as setup and previews for Infinity War.

3. Marvel already has the GA won over, while the DCEU, as evidenced by JL, does not. One commercial with Rocket riding into battle on Spiderman, Hulk throwing Black Panther into battle fastball special style, Iron Man quipping with Star Lord, and Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch doing crazy magic together will draw more goodwill from the GA than the entire JL campaign.

Marvel has done a great job marketing (outside of movie posters) for a long time, and there's zero reason to think that the Infinity War campaign will be any different.

 

[DarkRitual]

Some people complain about the marketing but remember that 4 full trailers came out during the 16 month period leading to the release of the movie. That is definitely the opposite of "poor" marketing. Just a comparison, Avengers Infinity War is coming out in 6 months yet there is still no trailer or even a poster to speak of

The first teaser for Avengers used pre-FX shots, dialog and clips from Iron Man 1, and was released in theaters as the after credits scene in Captain America in July of 2011.

The first full trailer debuted in October of that year, 7 months before the film.

The first teaser for Force Awakens was released over a year before release. Conversely, the under performing X-Men Apocalypse didn't have its first trailer until 5 months before it released.

It's not the timing that's the problem, necessarily.

 

[Beatnation]

Hollywood Reporter? @THROnline
The DC Films Universe will come to an end after Aquaman, Warner Bros has announced. #JusticeLeague

https://bit.ly/IqT6zt

 

[Reel-Man]

Good job. You got me...