Well, it appears it is official: Captain America 3 will be going up against Man of Steel 2/Batman vs. Superman/Justice League (whatever it will be called). And, while I do think that DC will be the one to have to back down, as I would imagine that Marvel can afford the loss of money on its properties, and DC needs this next movie to really succeed to warrant a full-fledged DC Cinematic Universe, I also think that Marvel could really pull out all the stops to push Man of Steel 2 off of their pre-secured spot.
Marvel has the benefit of having a huge (and still growing) cinematic universe. Captain America is nowhere near its biggest property. Many are wondering why Thor 3 wasn’t selected instead as Thor has always been a slightly larger franchise than Captain America. However, Thor’s stories have always resided in other realms, with stories focused on him. Captain America’s story has resided on Earth and in the United States of America (duh). This means other established Earth-dwelling characters are more accessible.
One of these is…Iron Man.
Now, I know what everyone is thinking. People are going to want to throw Kevin Feige’s words that the contract is to allow for new players to entire in Phase 3 and that Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t want to do a solo Iron Man film. And they’d be exactly right: Kevin Feige does want to expand on the Marvel Universe and Robert Downey Jr. has NOT signed a contract for any solo Iron Man film and I think it’s pretty clear Downey is doing nothing but team films from here on out.
The reason Marvel re-signed Downey seems to be pretty self-explanatory. Many analysts were thinking Downey’s removal could cost the studio up to 15% of its potential profits. When we’re talking about a movie essentially guaranteed to make $1.5 billion that is a lot of money lost, especially when Downey’s contract would reportedly cost only about $50-100 million per movie at most.
However, this would raise the question: why bring in such an expensive player for a franchise that is doing pretty well? Captain America: The Winter Soldier, while making a lot of money, will likely (no, will not) make nearly as much as Iron Man 3. Now, it isn’t hard to deny that coming RIGHT off of The Avengers probably boosted it a lot and great marketing made it even better but one thing is for sure: Iron Man is the key to Marvel and is clearly the most popular character of the bunch.
DC clearly has pulled the same trick. The Dark Knight Rises, alone, made over a billion dollars…without 3D ticket prices which is truly astounding (regardless of your opinions of the film, as I personally hated it). Batman is arguably the biggest or the second biggest superhero in the world (maybe behind Iron Man, but I’d say that is a stretch). However, Ben Affleck being the new Batman won’t go against it as much as it technically being a rebooted Batman after they just an old Batman on screen just four years previous (not even).
That being said: Batman is still a huge seller and putting him and Superman in one movie is sure to kill any solo movie Marvel has. The answer seems simple. Instead of doing a massive team-up like with Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel could re-sign Downey to have a supporting role in Captain America 3. Captain America will still be the main presence and, sure, Downey will end up shooting a little longer than he did for his solo films, but him being a secondary character limits shooting schedules but increases his pay for increased screen time.
Not only would this make Captain America 3 a bigger hit (probably not on the level of Man of Steel 2) but would also make it at least a competitor against the giant of a film that is Man of Steel 2. While I think both will still make an incredible amount of money, both of the movies’ profits would take a hit if they competed with each other. DC may just be able to accept that until you make Captain America 3 a real competitor.
This doesn’t end the point though that this may just be for money reasons. And I think to a certain extent that would be true but, at the same time, massive creative possibilities are opened up by the idea. Captain America and Iron Man’s relationship in the books is an interesting and complex one, one of the best ones because of the amount of history that they have. To have Iron Man and Captain America be able to interact outside of Avengers films would open up growth in the relationship much better than it otherwise could.
All-in-all, I think it would be a smart move to pay Downey a little more and sign him for one more co-operative movie in Captain America 3. Not only would it likely make DC back off but it would allow for Captain America 3 to get more audience recognition and also get people more excited for future Captain America sequels.
So, what do you think? Possible or impossible. Comment below and let me know. And I know this site has fallen victim to useless DC vs. Marvel debates and I would appreciate if everyone in the comments could set aside childish debates and exercise more mature discussion. Thanks!