Batman: The film revolutionizes DC Comics movie strategy

While Batman haunts dark rooms like the streets of Gotham, a small update on Warner’s new strategy for his superhero films, adapted from DC Comics. How did they move from backward studios to finally “banking” movies?

Reminder of problems

Warner’s studio in Related Worlds began in 2013, releasing Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel with Henry Cavill and especially Batman V Superman (2016) with the appearance of members of the upcoming Justice League. Already at that time part of the public did not obey the feature film as it was presented in cinemas. Some will see the film from a better angle thanks to its three-hour directorial cut.

Includes Suicide Squad (2016). And things start to go wrong. Because Batman V Superman turned out to be too dark and tried to copy the unexpected success of such light Marvel films as Guardians of the Galaxy, the studio re-edited the director’s editing without his consent.

The project turns into a movie in “pop” colors, which is clearly contrary to what the first, much darker trailer offered us. Moreover, the evil of Super Crime is completely relative, and these two facts together make David Ayer’s film a good box office (for a budget of $ 746.8 million 175), but whose poor reception by the public completely loses Warner.

The international success of Wonder Woman gave the studio fresh air, which was short-lived. Indeed, a point of no return for Warner Bros. is the 2017 Justice League theatrical release, officially signed by Zack Snyder, but still a studio film directed by Joe Whedon. The image and tone are retouched, new scenes are added, others are cut out, giving the film a hybrid tone, a promising story but a bitter taste. The taste of the unfinished.

Moreover, the merger of these superheroes is a failure at the box office for $ 657.92 million worldwide, with an estimated budget of 300. The de facto, DC-connected world is sinking a little further into chaos.

Two attempts … and two successes!

Still, Aquaman is coming to the screens in 2018 as the first DC feature film to be released in the role of one of the Justice League movie actors, here is Jason Momoa. There was a risk for Warner, who could believe that the audience would leave this character to fate without going to the theaters.

However, the film grossed over $ 1 billion at the box office, which has not been achieved since 2013 with DC Comics adapted live action.

Still, the DC universe is dying. Confirmation occurs when the public discovers Shazam’s post-credit scene in which Superman is present but his face is not shown because the studio does not know whether Henry Cavill will remain in the form of the Steel Man. Moreover, the new superhero, played by Zachary Levy, does not attract the masses.

In late 2019, Warner attempted a coup that had never been seen before in the superhero genre. Giving director Cart Blanche to shoot a film about a DC character solo that is not related to any other film in this world, past or future. His name is Joker and he portrays Joaquin Phoenix as a crazy clown from the world of Batman. As always, the actor is sharply prepared and takes the role very seriously.

In the staging we meet Todd Phillips, who is quite famous for his comedies Very Bad Trip, which gives the film a terrible darkness that does not damage its records, on the contrary, because like Aquaman it also brings a billion dollars.

On the other hand, it is interesting to note that the Birds of Prey, who were very much addicted to the Harley Quinn conspiracy in Suicide Squad and despite the popularity of Margo Robb in this role, could not find their audience. It was from this time on that Warner began to draw lessons from these observations and to think about these provincial revenues of independent films.

(We deliberately ignore the releases of Wonder Woman 1984 and The Suicide Squad, which were released in its entirety during the COVID-19 epidemic, simultaneously in theaters and on the HBO Max platform, and whose successes are hard to count. Delayed, although viewer feedback confirmed that its version of the film is highly anticipated).

Revival of Studio Superheroes

If Warner has left the related Justice League by this time, he still believes in some of the characters already installed by Zack Snyder. This is evidenced by the studio’s reluctance to release a solo film on The Flash, despite already 4 years of waiting (and it has just been postponed from this year until 2023). We will also see (finally) Ben Affleck as Batman.

Shazam 2, Black Adam, Wonder Woman 3, Aquaman 2 are also announced, but imagine – at least for now, more like solo adventures unrelated to other characters’s movies and not as parts of a single whole.

This is Warner’s new strategy: to multiply “independent” tricks without trying to create a complicated mechanism in which everything responds to the post-credit scenes that announce the upcoming film in the common world. In fact, each character has his own world in which the other characters do not have – for the time being – citizenship.

This is evidenced by this interview with Toby Emerick, CEO of Warner Bros. Film. DeadlineIn which he possesses a rather radical word:

Is the secret quality of film production. This is the best business strategy for feature and superhero movies.

Not all films have the same tone, are not related to other DC films, and have no hidden details that reflect the following film. Quality is the most important factor in a studio and the most important factor that affects quality is choosing the right director.

In this case, Matt Reeves for Batman, who signed the film with very little reference and a post-credit scene, which is not really the case at the moment. We also see that Emerick sends fist sand in Marvel’s eyes, indicating that Warner uses visionary directors, implying that the films produced by Kevin Feig have none or less.

Whether or not we agree with this boom, we must admit that financially, Warner’s tactics will eventually bear fruit. Batman confirms the Aquaman / Joker test worldwide by counting $ 279.8 million and preparing the series from the movie, which confirms the satisfaction of the financiers at this stage of release.

Are these Batman-like segregated mini-worlds what Warner was looking for in order to stand out and bring back the steam from the Marvel movies? Finding out at the box office of upcoming DC movies whether or not this movement initiated by the studio will be confirmed over time, but one thing is clear: this is a successful bet for the time being.

For a further look at Batman, see our interview with its director, Matt Reeves: