Why Can't DC Get it right?

[jmc]

The DC heroes are all pretty expensive propositions. Green Lantern is actually not a sure-fire thing...and I would suggest that it is likely that it's the riskiest choice out of the top tier DC heroes.

So, if this massive risk pays off, then they will start green-lighting more movies. It makes no financial sense to flood the market with risky, expensive movies when you have barely tested the waters.

My guess is that WB is cautiously moving ahead on scripts and initial details...

If Green Lantern tanks...expect a scaled back announcement slate at next year's Comic Con revolving around Batman and Superman. If Green Lantern is a hit (even moderately) expect things like Flash and Wonder Woman to have some huge announcements.

With the studio currently bankrolling Green Lantern, Batman and Superman films (in addition to all of their other franchises), you really can't expect much more from them without it being a release slate nightmare.

And the cautious approach is what should be applauded by the DC fan base. WB could have easily went ahead with a third Batman film without Chris Nolan, but to their credit they waited until Nolan was ready. How often does that happen? And look at the god awful JL Mortal film that almost happened, obviously other factors came into the equation but someone at WB at some point obviously saw the light and realized they were doing things backwards. If Marvel feel like throwing caution to the wind by releasing all these films within a 4 year period that's their decision, but it shouldn't come as a surprise to fan base and the studio heads if things don't go to plan, I actually think what Marvel is doing is quite reckless.

 

[Heretic]

I agree that marvel is being reckless. It was reckless to release The Incredible Hulk only a few short months after Iron Man, with virtually no chance to build it whatsoever since Iron Man fever caught fire (and the fact that other comic book movies came out that summer as well). It never occurred to Marvel that maybe releasing films that quickly would hurt them...and they learned nothing from it since Thor and Captain America are repeating the formula in an even more competitive summer.

WB has several high dollar franchises going on right now. There is no reason why they would pour hundreds of millions into other projects that would then be released right around the same time as their other tentpole releases, which would mean competing for the same dollars, and negatively affecting the box office of all of their films. 2011 is crowded enough with WB properties (and Marvel potentially destroying it's film division with 4 movies in 3 months)...2012 has Batman and Superman...so DC should be looking at 2013 right now, when Green Lantern, Batman and Superman will all still be working on sequels. 2013 is the perfect time for Wonder Woman and another property.

 

[Octoberist]

I think The Flash will get greenlit first, then Wonder Woman. Just a feeling.

 

[jacobed]

I'm really excited for Green Lantern especially seeing the different effects with the ring and what not. I'd like to see a Green Arrow movie because he was always my favorite character in the DC universe. Marvel is definitely being a bit reckless but potentially destroying their film divisions? Definitely far from it. Iron Man was fantastic and the Hulk may not have met huge expectations but it was still a good movie and a box office success. Thor looks fantastic and who knows from the Capt. could be great or it could be terrible. Doesn't matter how bad those movies may be, Avengers will be huge.

 

[Heretic]

Avengers will be huge?

How do you know? Its not like everyone knows what the Avengers are...and odds are that it will be maxed out around Iron Man numbers anyway...

And Marvel is releasing Thor, which is competing with the X-Men reboot for dollars...which in turn is competing with Captain America (which will make nothing overseas). They are competing with themselves!!! That is in addition to Pirates of The Caribbean, Harry Potter and everything else.

If Thor does The Incredible Hulk-like numbers...and X-Men does worse than Wolverine...and captain America follows with The Incredible Hulk-like numbers...then why on earth should we believe that there is any excitement for Avengers?

These are all guesses...but in a bad economy, it is never a good idea to assume that a product will be a huge hit in an overcrowded market.

 

[Spidey-Quad]

It wasnt. Why would it? Who else would they be talking about? Again, I agree...I dont know why they bother to talk to me. Especially Spidey Quad. If I wanted that kind of conversation, I'd talk to my five year old nephew.

Lol, talk about avoiding a situation. But at least that would be a fair fight

 

[SuperFerret]

I think The Flash will get greenlit first, then Wonder Woman. Just a feeling.

I feel the opposite. Particularly if Thor is a success.

 

[Anita18]

I agree that marvel is being reckless. It was reckless to release The Incredible Hulk only a few short months after Iron Man, with virtually no chance to build it whatsoever since Iron Man fever caught fire (and the fact that other comic book movies came out that summer as well). It never occurred to Marvel that maybe releasing films that quickly would hurt them...and they learned nothing from it since Thor and Captain America are repeating the formula in an even more competitive summer.

TIH was released ONE month after IM. That was way too close, if you ask me. Two months is definitely more room, and both can be successful if they time the marketing right. IMO the marketing for IM took away from TIH. Since they're both coming from the same company, that part's really important.

IM and TDK were both very successful, being released 2 months apart. But they're from two different companies, with separate marketing dollars. Each company could focus their marketing accordingly but with two during the same season, you have to plan more carefully.

We'll see how it goes...

Lol, talk about avoiding a situation. But at least that would be a fair fight

Speaking from experience, avoiding a fight over the internet is the smartest thing you can do.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Avengers will be huge?

How do you know? Its not like everyone knows what the Avengers are...and odds are that it will be maxed out around Iron Man numbers anyway...

And Marvel is releasing Thor, which is competing with the X-Men reboot for dollars...which in turn is competing with Captain America (which will make nothing overseas). They are competing with themselves!!! That is in addition to Pirates of The Caribbean, Harry Potter and everything else.

If Thor does The Incredible Hulk-like numbers...and X-Men does worse than Wolverine...and captain America follows with The Incredible Hulk-like numbers...then why on earth should we believe that there is any excitement for Avengers?

These are all guesses...but in a bad economy, it is never a good idea to assume that a product will be a huge hit in an overcrowded market.

Thor's not going to be competing with X-men. Thor comes out a whole month before X-men and Captain America comes out a long time after Thor. I believe Cap is released 2 and a half months after Thor.

If anything Thor has no competition right now, while Cap has to worry about the final Harry Potter film.

I feel the opposite. Particularly if Thor is a success.

I do not think Wonder Woman will get released before Flash. In fact I think there's little chance it will he released before Flash.

 

[dnno1]

I know that this argument is still ongoing, but let's take a break and get a few laughs from this:

 

[GL's Light]

Thor's not going to be competing with X-men. Thor comes out a whole month before X-men and Captain America comes out a long time after Thor. I believe Cap is released 2 and a half months after Thor.

If anything Thor has no competition right now, while Cap has to worry about the final Harry Potter film.

None of the four superhero films released next summer pose much in the way of direct competition to each other. Even X-Men: First Class will probably be frontloaded enough so as not to be too much of a factor when Green Lantern is released. Thor has by far the best release date and the least competition. The other films have competition in the weeks immediately preceding and following them to worry about, as well as the possibility of superhero fatigue as the summer draws on. Captain America has the toughest release given that it goes last amongst the superhero films and given that it's sandwiched between the final Harry Potter film and Cowboys & Aliens.

 

[Tony Stark]

Avengers will be huge?

How do you know? Its not like everyone knows what the Avengers are...and odds are that it will be maxed out around Iron Man numbers anyway...

And Marvel is releasing Thor, which is competing with the X-Men reboot for dollars...which in turn is competing with Captain America (which will make nothing overseas). They are competing with themselves!!! That is in addition to Pirates of The Caribbean, Harry Potter and everything else.

If Thor does The Incredible Hulk-like numbers...and X-Men does worse than Wolverine...and captain America follows with The Incredible Hulk-like numbers...then why on earth should we believe that there is any excitement for Avengers?

These are all guesses...but in a bad economy, it is never a good idea to assume that a product will be a huge hit in an overcrowded market.

X-men will be launched a month later after Thor, so I don't see how it will be "competing" for dollars. The fact is most summer movies make most of their profits in the first two weeks of release. If Thor has legs beyond that, X-men won't make a difference, just as the first Spider-man movie was still making money when Attack of the Clones came out.

Cap is being released in late July, so again your argument doesn't hold.

There is anticipation for Avengers, and Marvel set that up in IM2 and IM1, which was very smart. I don't know how Thor and Cap will do but from what I saw at comicon it looks Epic and Antony Hopkins performance alone will draw an audience.

 

[GL's Light]

I'm sure The Avengers will do numbers at least comparable to Iron Man 2. They have the security of Iron Man's popularity regardless of how Thor and Captain America do next summer.

 

[BlackLantern]

DC had one film and a lot of "we can't talk about it" or "things are coming soon" at Comic Con

that doesn't put out a very good perception

 

[GL's Light]

DC had one film and a lot of "we can't talk about it" or "things are coming soon" at Comic Con

that doesn't put out a very good perception

The Avengers was the only summer 2012 film promoted at Comic-Con. There were no Christmas 2012 films promoted. The studios - not just Warners, but all of the studios - almost always use Comic-Con to promote their geek cinema films scheduled for release in the next year or so. Marvel stands apart in announcing and promoting films very early. The way Warners handled Comic-Con is more in line with standard practice rather than some huge deficit of announcements.

 

[mat-chow]

The Avengers was the only summer 2012 film promoted at Comic-Con. There were no Christmas 2012 films promoted. The studios - not just Warners, but all of the studios - almost always use Comic-Con to promote their geek cinema films scheduled for release in the next year or so. Marvel stands apart in announcing and promoting films very early. The way Warners handled Comic-Con is more in line with standard practice rather than some huge deficit of announcements.

Good point. It will be interesting to see how Thor and Cap fare next summer- I think we will be able to pretty much pinpoint how Avengers does by their numbers. IM2, while performing well, did not raise the bar at ALL in terms of quality. I really enjoyed the Tony Stark portion, but everything else was rushed and generally ****e. If anyone thinks another X-Men is going to affect GL, they're nuts. It's no great shakes to call Thor and GL the biggest movies of next year. Which one will come out on top remains to be seen. I'm pulling for DC to start building it up of course...

 

[dnno1]

None of the four superhero films released next summer pose much in the way of direct competition to each other. Even X-Men: First Class will probably be frontloaded enough so as not to be too much of a factor when Green Lantern is released. Thor has by far the best release date and the least competition. The other films have competition in the weeks immediately preceding and following them to worry about, as well as the possibility of superhero fatigue as the summer draws on. Captain America has the toughest release given that it goes last amongst the superhero films and given that it's sandwiched between the final Harry Potter film and Cowboys & Aliens.

As far as head to head at the box office, yes, but people will be comparing their box office numbers just like they did when Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and The Dark Knight were in theaters. Looking at the dates now, it seems like Marvel expects Captain America to be a summer tent-pole (though Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince might give it a run for a week or two), while, although Thor does not quite have a summer release, May has been a traditional release date for its favored franchises (namely Spider-Man, and Iron Man). Only time will tell if this holds true though.

 

[GL's Light]

...although Thor does not quite have a summer release, May has been a traditional release date for its favored franchises

May and early June are part of the summer in movie terms, if not in actual seasonal terms. The first weekend of May kicks off the summer as far as Hollywood is concerned.

 

[Heretic]

I love that people blame Hulk's poor showing on it coming out a month after Iron Man, and then turn right around and say that Thor, X-Men and Captain America coming out within 3 months will make no difference. It is Marvel splitting up promotion.

And for those of you who think that a movie isnt competing with a movie coming out a few weeks later, people do not have an unlimited supply of money. As the summer kicks off and excitement builds for Pirates, Harry Potter, Green Lantern etc...some movies are going to generate less interest...and Marvel is having to promote 3 movies during this time...the most competitive time in movie history.

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Marvel only has to promote 2 movies. X-Men is with Fox.

That doesn't really mean anything either. WB has GL and Potter.

 

[BlackLantern]

Harry Potter sells itself

 

[The Batman]

Lol, talk about avoiding a situation. But at least that would be a fair fight

Avoiding what situation? What would I gain from lowering myself to your level? Oh, you dont like the way WB does things, and anyone that disagrees with you is "Touched", or some other kind of childish jibe you're bound to make.

Or maybe you think this discussion is some kind of "Battle" or "conflict", where there are winners and losers? If so, then I'd have to laugh, cause you clearly dont know the nature of the internet. If you think you're gonna convince someone of something, think again. This thread is clear proof. Person A says one thing, then Person B disagrees. And besides people agreeing with person A or B, thats it.

Or...maybe you think you actually have good ideas...to which I say you are wrong. You dont. You dont have any ideas. You just complain. I've yet to see you come up with a logical solution to how "DC gets it right", besides "All they gotta do is hire someone to write a perfect script!" or "A Flash movie would be killer with some modern special effects!", which arent actual solutions so much as vague wishful thinking and stating the obvious, that these movies would look nice with modern sfx.

So No, I have nothing to gain from a "Situation" with you, so why you continue to address me, I have no idea.

And Again, whats the point of anyone saying anything to you when you just interpret it as being a fanboy apologist, or something negative when they dont agree with you? Heretic is one of the smartest posters in this thread, and has actually contributed actual ideas, and you labelled him a DC apologist despite him constantly saying he actually prefers indie comics overall.

So now that I've documented in detail why I generally dont wanna deal with you, maybe you'll stop trying to have an argument with me. I doubt you will, though.

BTW...Your "Fair fight" joke dosent work at all. My statement clearly indicates that an argument with you would be equivalent to arguing with a five year old. And the obvious lack of comprehension skills in your response only proves I'm right.

 

[GL's Light]

And for those of you who think that a movie isnt competing with a movie coming out a few weeks later, people do not have an unlimited supply of money. As the summer kicks off and excitement builds for Pirates, Harry Potter, Green Lantern etc...some movies are going to generate less interest...

Yeah, that's always a factor, but that's more of a form of indirect competition, as distinct from directly competing for dollars with other films going after the same demographics within, say, a three-week period.

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Harry Potter sells itself

I know. I was just saying that WB has 2 and Marvel Studios has 2.

 

[Heretic]

Marvel only has to promote 2 movies. X-Men is with Fox.

That doesn't really mean anything either. WB has GL and Potter.

So, Marvel will play no part in any sort of X-Men exposure? No X-Men comic event to hype the movie? Yeah, right...

WB has two movies to promote...to two very different audiences.