DC Films Doesn’t Need An Overhaul

In better box office news for Warner Bros., The Batman now sits at $361.235 million domestic and around $740 million global. That means it’ll pass the domestic gross of Deadpool ($363 million) today or tomorrow while flirting with the Ryan Reynolds film’s $763 million global cume over the weekend. Once it passes Deadpool in North America, it’ll be the fifth-biggest-grossing (sans inflation) comic book superhero “part one” flick behind only Spider-Man ($402 million), Wonder Woman ($412.5 million), Captain Marvel ($426 million) and Black Panther ($700 million). If it passes $387 million domestic (a firm “maybe”), it’ll sit behind those films and, when adjusted for inflation, Iron Man ($318 million in 2008/$406 million adjusted), Superman: The Movie ($134 million in 1978/$525 million adjusted) and Batman ($251 million in 1989/$575 million adjusted).

Matt Reeves and Peter Craig’s $185 million, three-hour franchise-starter remains the biggest-grossing reboot in North America and second worldwide only to Spider-Man: Homecoming ($881 million in 2017). That they haven’t officially announced a follow-up yet is itself a positive sign. Unlike what we saw with Jungle Cruise, Wonder Woman 1984 and Star Trek Beyond, they don’t have to rush out a sequel announcement to create the impression of success. With a much-shared Variety article dropping yesterday discussing the notion of Discovery giving DC Films and the DC Comics brand an overhaul, it’s worth noting that they shouldn’t try too hard to fix what isn’t necessarily broken. More importantly, David Zaslav must understand that DC can’t necessarily justify a strict MCU-like cinematic universe and less-conventional digressions (Joker, Peacemaker, The Batman).

Wonder Woman earned rave reviews while grossing $412.5 million domestic and $821 million worldwide on a $150 million budget. Aquaman earned solid notices and became the leggiest live-action “big” comic book movie since Batman, earning $335 million domestic from a $72 million launch and earning $298 million in China for a $1.148 billion global cume. Shazam got kneecapped by Avengers: Endgame in weekend four, but the well-reviewed and well-received YA horror/foster care drama still grossed $363 million on a $90 million budget. Joker, an R-rated, action-lite drama, was an Oscar-winning smash that earned $1.073 billion worldwide on a $65 million budget. Even accounting for Birds of Prey (great reviews but poor box office with $204 million on an $82 million budget), DC was on a roll before Covid.

I never thought Wonder Woman 1984 was going to gross $1 billion, not before Covid and certainly not after. The likely scenario was less in North America and more overseas for a global total on par with its predecessor. That’s how it worked for the likes of Iron Man 2, Deadpool 2, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Star Trek Into Darkness and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. But there is zero doubt in my mind that Wonder Woman 1984 would have, under non-Covid circumstances, opened huge in June of 2020 and ended up with around $300 million domestic and $650 million worldwide, which would have been just fine. In a non-Covid world, Wonder Woman 1984 would have been followed by The Batman in June of 2021.

Even if giving James Gunn $180 million for an R-rated Suicide Squad sequel sans Will Smith, Batman and the Joker was always a commercial mistake, in non-Covid times it would have been seen as a critically acclaimed “what Marvel can’t” offering after successful runs for WW84 and The Batman. If we now argue that The Suicide Squad ($168 million worldwide) was a glorified loss leader so that Peacemaker could triumph on HBO Max, well, you can’t have that streaming hit without that theatrical flop. If you think that Peacemaker didn’t benefit from being a televised continuation of a theatrical DC flick, then well, I too wish more people watched Doom Patrol. As I’ve been saying for two years, the difference between theatrically-intended and streaming-bound is Mulan versus Lady and the Tramp.

Sure, the earliest DC films have more complicated receptions, but recall that Marvel began when Iron Man was a hit at $585 million and Captain America and Batman Begins could be successes at $375 million. Moreover, budgets and expectations created a scenario in 2013-2016 where Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier were huge hits at $644 million and $714 million but Man of Steel and Suicide Squad were questionable at $668 million and $725 million (sans China). If we argue that DC never had to “top” the MCU but merely coexist, then I’d argue they’ve been doing just that at least since 2017. Sure, Marvel was 2000s-era Pixar while DC was 2000s-era DreamWorks, but I’ll cut anyone who says an unkind word about Kung Fu Panda 2.

I’d like to think that Zaslav knows that he can’t have both an MCU and offbrand curiosities like The Suicide Squad and Joker. DC is at its best, and that includes the extended cuts of Snyder’s Batman v Superman and Justice League, when it tries to be Homicide: Life on the Street to the MCU’s Law and Order (I guess that means Sony’s Morbius is Cop Rock). I also hope that The Flash doesn’t entirely retcon what’s come before. Needlessly antagonizing the folks who really like Snyder’s trilogy aside, Shazam and Birds of Prey showed that the universe didn’t need a reboot, and I always believe you should play the cards you’re dealt. Retconning is bad, whether it’s Rise of Skywalker or F9.

Looking at the films that followed Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, save for the mangled theatrical cut of Justice League, we’ve seen eight movies that have been wildly disparate in terms of tone, budget, scale and cinematic intent. That’s not even counting the shows (Harley Quinn, Titans, an entire television cinematic universe that is Greg Berlanti’s “ArrowVerse,” etc.) and still-potent potential for HBO Max content based upon DC theatricals. What we have is an ideal version of a so-called cinematic universe, one where the likes Patty Jenkins, James Gunn, Cathy Yan, Matt Reeves, James Wan and (at least initially) Zack Snyder got to make whatever the hell they wanted with $80-$250 million budgets. The entire enterprise isn’t a failure because you prefer the Zack Snyder movies or because you didn’t like Snyder’s Man of Steel.

Walter Hamada was initially tasked with overseeing DC Films in the aftermath of Justice League precisely because of his success with turning The Conjuring Universe ($2 billion over six films on a combined budget of $171 million) into the first (and most consistently successful) post-Avengers cinematic universe. I would argue that he has succeeded at turning DC Films/DC Comics into a brand that, before Covid, was indeed going toe-to-toe with the MCU. Just before and now amid his reign, each brand has had two $1 billion-plus origin story movies (Black Panther and Captain Marvel alongside Aquaman and Joker), one Best Picture nominee (Black Panther and Joker) and one “overperforming movie we need right now” franchise-starter (Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy). It’s not an exact match (Avengers > Justice League), but it’s closer than you’d think.

If the next batch of DC flicks (Black Adam, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Batgirl, The Flash, Blue Beetle, etc.) mostly bomb, then we can talk about reboots. But thus far, and Superman isn’t nearly as popular a character among the general audiences as he is with the comic-specific fandom, DC Films is doing what we all wanted. We’ve had several mostly acclaimed, mostly successful filmmaker-driven films centering on a variety of DC characters (not just Batman) that aren’t tied down by strict continuity or a house style and are allowed to live or die on their own terms. It’s a world where Batman v Superman and Birds of Prey can coexist while still making room for Joker. That sounds like a solid cinematic universe to me.