DCEU in trouble after Justice League or just fine as a whole

DCEU in trouble after Justice League or just fine as a whole

Has Justice League sank the ship for DC Films as a whole or is it a one movie issue to be fixed, we compare DCEU first 5 to MCU first 6 movies and speculate for Aquaman.

Editorial Opinion
By UNBIAS3DMCU - Dec 12, 2017 07:12 AM EST
Filed Under: DC Studios
Source: Box Office Mojo

So a little math and numbers never hurt nobody, that likes to take their time and do the work.

DC and Warner’s do not have a good image coming from their Justice League movie, released almost a month ago, bad opening weekend and overall Box Office disappointment for a movie featuring major players. My theory is that assemble movies are no longer a guarantee box office billion and half vehicles. You can see that in Age of Ultron and Civil War featuring all of the Avengers from 2012 plus a lot more new characters added over the years. From 1.5 Billion to 1.153 B, even though Civil War is considered a solo Captain America movie it did feature a lot of characters and two brand new ones that hyped the movies additionally.

Anyway we aren’t here to discuss this specifically, we are here to look at both MCU and DCEU’s first 6 movies in terms success or failure.

One is called a smash the other is called a flop. In reality thought, things are pretty even at the moment considering that is DCEU’s 5th movie with Aquaman still not released to form a solid 6 movie line up. Still DC hasn’t made a big splash monetary with their Justice League franchise as their greedy bosses expected to happen and get their Xmas and annual bonuses for it, and we hope they do not get any.



Sorry Kevin and Jon, this ain’t how you impress DC fans, with rushed FX and cutting scenes left and right for the sake of catching a date. But in any scenario, the media would have you believe that DC is this huge flop and Marvel is on top of Mount Rushmore, which isn’t exactly true.

Here is how its currently looking financially, with 4 weeks in cinema Justice League has made 614 Million worldwide more or less, far away from 1.5 Billion almost double the numbers down, this is a fact. However the DCEU as a franchise has managed to make a combined 3,723,398,842 Billion dollars wordwide, in its first 5 movies, compared to MCU first 6 movies for 3,811,244,484, Billion worldwide. This is less than a 100 Million dollars difference for DC. We are not including here any future box office results for Justice League and their 6th movie Aquaman to conclude a 6 vs 6 movies from both companies.

With the upcoming DC line up, we can see The Justice League will not be DC’s phase indicator, so for the sake of conversation we will discuss movie for movie in each franchise’s own timeline [date of release].

So if we compare the above mentioned we have 3,723 B vs 3,811 in a 5 vs 6 movies, with the latter having the biggest grossing comic book movie of all time and only fresh movies on RT and DC having only one fresh movie from these 5 and one movie missing plus one still in cinema.



Let’s assume the worst and have Justice League end up around 664 Million, then the number would be 3,773 B vs 3, 811 B, still a difference of 40 Million in favor of MCU, but with DC pending one movie Aquaman to form the first 6 movies in their franchise. So Aquaman needs to make 40 Million in the BO for a tie, that tie would be 6 for 6 movies, one highly critically appraised and with the biggest super hero grossing movie of all time [unadjusted] vs the worst scored super hero movies and Wonder Woman, right?

Ok, now I will factor in another angle which is time when those movies were released in, since Iron Man came out in 2008 and MOS in 2013, a ticket in 2008 costed 7.18 USD vs 8.13 USD in 2013, so the MCU apologist will probably say “see DC still making less”, ok then I will look as their respective years and prices for tickets and their box office and count the seats sold in the respective year.
MCU first 6 movies based on their BO and price for a ticket in the year released have sold the following number of tickets:

491,466,040 seats vs DCEU [No Aquaman] 430,181,379 seats,

so Aquaman needs to sell 61 Million seats worldwide, which will mean it will perform monetary like the first Thor movie, which sold 56 Million seats. Now don’t get me wrong, but I think Aquaman will perform much better than Thor. I have developed a few scenarios for you at different prices for a ticket in 2018.

Here is your detailed box office performance for all MCU and DCEU movies per franchise and date of release.
 
DCEU first 6 movies WorldWide Gross Year Ticket Price Sold seats
Man of Steel 668,045,518 2013 8.13 USD 82,170,420
Batman V Superman : DOJ 873,260,194 2016 8.65 USD 100,954,935
Suicide Squad 745,600,054 2016 8.65 USD 86,196,538
Wonder Woman 821,763,408 2017 8.93 USD 92,022,778
*Justice League 614,729,668 2017 8.93 USD 68,836,708
Aquaman 0 2018 0 0
Total USD 3,723,398,842     430,181,379
         
MCU first 6 movies WorldWide Gross Year Ticket Price Sold seats
Iron Man 585,174,222 2008 7.18 USD 81,500,588
The Incredible Hulk 263,427,551 2008 7.18 USD 36,689,073
Iron Man 2 623,933,331 2010 7.89 USD 79,079,002
Thor 449,326,618 2011 7.93 USD 56,661,616
Captain America: The First Avenger 370,569,774 2011 7.93 USD 46,730,110
The Avengers 1,518,812,988 2012 7.96 USD 190,805,651
Total USD 3,811,244,484     491,466,040

*      Still playing in cinemas
 
Here you can see the worldwide gross, how much a ticket costed in the respective year and how many seats they sold based on it.
And here is some possible scenarios for 2018’s Aquaman and possible box office performances for the movie, based on the genre.

Aquaman performance Ticket Price Sold seats Worldwide gross
if it performs like MOS 9 82,170,420 739,533,780
if it performs like MOS 9.12 82,170,420 749,394,230
if it performs like MOS 9.21 82,170,420 756,789,569
if it perfomrs like BVS 9 100,954,935 908,594,415
if it perfomrs like BVS 9.12 100,954,935 920,709,007
if it perfomrs like BVS 9.21 100,954,935 929,794,951
if it performs like WW 9 92,022,778 828,205,002
if it performs like WW 9.12 92,022,778 839,247,735
if it performs like WW 9.21 92,022,778 847,529,785
if it performs like Suicide Squad 9 86,196,538 775,768,842
if it performs like Suicide Squad 9.12 86,196,538 786,112,426
if it performs like Suicide Squad 9.21 86,196,538 793,870,114
If it performs like Thor 9 56,661,616 509,954,544
If it performs like Thor 9.12 56,661,616 516,753,937
If it performs like Thor 9.21 56,661,616 521,853,483
if it performs like TIH 9.21 36,689,073 337,906,362

 
I added 3 possible trends for the price of the ticket, based on the inflation trends. And that’s 9 USD, 9.12 USD and 9.21 USD.

If Aquaman is a flop and performs like The Incredible Hulk, it will end up with 337 M and still put in DCEU monetary over Marvel, but with less seats sold, so less people enjoying it in cinemas, less fans. If Aquaman performs like MOS, BVS, WW or SS or even Thor, DC would be with both more seats sold and more BO money accumulated, so you can browse all scenarios.

Even with DC getting a bad wrap, they are still selling a respectable number of tickets to people. In both cases I think those phase 1 numbers, approach and tactics were necesesary to find what works and what doesn’t for each studio. In WB, what doesn’t work is management and people handling decisions like their CEO Kevin Tsujihara, producers like Jon Berg, who practically slept on the set of Justice League and we stil got a crap movie that is neither’s directors tone of movie.

Do not touch Wan’s, Reeves’s, Jenkin’s, O Connors’s movies and will should be ok, no cutting or interference. If you do, then its fan rage and no more support and then BYE for life. But please guys, do not mistake the power of DC in the right hands. You see even with a negative image they are going neck for neck with the golden child, so imagine a good critical reception and we will discuss Phase 2 vs Phase 2 in some years!
 
 

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Kyos
Kyos - 12/12/2017, 11:22 AM
we are here to look at both MCU and DCEU’s first 6 movies in terms success or failure.

One small factor that probably should be considered in this discussion -aside from stuff like initial popularity of the characters- might be what the studios had to invest to make the movies. With the amount of money WB/DC spent on their first 5 movies Marvel made their first 6 1/2 movies.
Dersgnar
Dersgnar - 12/12/2017, 12:38 PM
Nice article however you are trying to justify something that doesn't need justification. Mediocre movies still make good money especially housing the most popular and famous super heroes of all time. I like DC and I like Marvel, everything is great but stuff like this invites division. Marvel's structure makes sense and is easy to understand where you can jump in and out at anytime. DC's doesn't, while their casting is great, directors are great, source material is awesome, it just is not working for most people. On paper it should... but the end product doesn't. I also don't think box office earnings are a direct representation of how great a movie is, look at Iron Man 3.
JDL
JDL - 12/12/2017, 5:43 PM
@Dersgnar - One thing you left out; the writing is largely either weak or divisive.
ALF9001
ALF9001 - 12/14/2017, 12:26 AM
The thing is, that this comparison isn´t as fair as you make it out to be. Sure, you are comparing the 6 first films in each universe, but DC films were working with the most popular superheroes ever, with one of them building of the greatest CBM trilogy of all time; meanwhile, Marvel was introducing new (b-list) characters to the audience. Also, when Marvel started, cbm weren´t the biggest movies at the box office, and most superhero films were considered a risk. DC built its world in a postn Avengers era, where everybody wanted to see more cbms, both studios and audiences, so naturally, they were going to make bigger bank.
JDL
JDL - 12/15/2017, 5:07 PM
1) I agree that large ensemble movies will not automatically make tons of cash in the future. Part of the appeal on the Avengers was that as an event it was new. That is no longer the case. As for CA:CW while it is not* an Avengers outing it is a large ensemble piece. As such it falls somewhere between the solo flicks and the Avengers and should be evaluated as such.

*no common opponent, a somewhat unhappy ending and 2 major league missing Avengers

2) Comparisons between the early MCU and the DCEU are difficult. BvS can't honestly be prepared to any 1st phase MCU release, nor can SS. That leaves MoS, WW, and JL. The DC solo films did somewhat better than Marvel the but then they were A list characters and they had the advantage of going second and seeing what worked and what didn't. Given those advantages they should have done better.
sikwon
sikwon - 12/18/2017, 7:25 PM
1.2 Billion Iron Man 3
1.4 Billion Age of Ultron
1.5 Billion Avengers

There is no reason, that Batman vs Superman should not have expected to make a billion dollars. Justice League should have atleast made as much as Iron Man 3. The fact is that Marvel has a better product. There are no longer any valid arguments against that statement. They have been grounbreaking in every respect. The sad part of this debate is that a JL movie should have been absolutely mind blowing.
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