Former WB Execs Sets The Record Straight On Zack Snyder's DCEU Box Office Performance

Former WB Execs Sets The Record Straight On Zack Snyder's DCEU Box Office Performance

During Zack Snyder's run at Warner Bros. and the DCEU did he release a string of box office flops- or is someone confusing critical response with commercial failure?

News
By MarkJulian - Aug 01, 2023 07:08 PM EST
Filed Under: Justice League

A former key WB executive is setting the record straight on the profitability of Zack Snyder's films at Warner Bros. Zack's tenure at Warner Bros. started with 2007's 300 and seems to have concluded with 2020's Zack Snyder's Justice League, although you never know what the future holds.

On social media, Greg Silverman responded to an assertion that, outside of 300, Snyder lost a ton of money for WB.

Greg Silverman previously ran the Warner Bros. film studio as President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production alongside Sue Kroll and Toby Emmerich. He served directly under former WB CEOs Jeff Robinov, Barry Meyer, and Kevin Tsujihara.

Following 300, Zack Snyder directed, wrote, or produced Watchmen (2009), Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), Sucker Punch (2011), Man of Steel (2013), 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Justice League (2017), Aquaman (2018), and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).

While there are definitely some critical failures in this run, there aren't too many box office flops. As Silverman asserts, only Sucker Punch and The Owls of Ga'Hoole actually failed to turn a profit or break even.

These days, Zack has signed a first-look deal with Netflix, having already released Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves. Up next will be Snyder's Star Wars-pitch turned original sci-fi epic, Rebel Moon, which will be released by the streaming platform on December 22, 2023.

Snyder also has several other projects in development at Netflix, including Planet of the Dead and an animated series titled Twilight of the Gods. 

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MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 8/1/2023, 8:03 PM
Typical internet nonsense.
MrDandy
MrDandy - 8/1/2023, 8:03 PM
Honestly most of Snyder’s movies for the DCEU were guilty of underperforming not outright flopping. They weren’t “very” profitable but they didn’t tank either.
TheHumanSpider2
TheHumanSpider2 - 8/1/2023, 8:36 PM
@MrDandy - Man of Steel flopped, and BvS is one of the biggest bombs of all times.
TheOtherOn
TheOtherOn - 8/1/2023, 8:46 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 -

MoS Budget: 225 Millions
WW BO: 668 Millions

Even in "Hollywood Accounting" they can't show in the books this movie lost any money. And all of this is of course just the theatrical turn over, not counting home media rentals/sales and all the merchandises.

Maybe do a little search before spitting out lies with ignorance and showing how hate bandwagon jumping works.
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 8/1/2023, 9:06 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 - Man of Steel didn’t flop. Thats a silly statement. The DCEU was born and died there too.
TheLobster
TheLobster - 8/1/2023, 9:08 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 - BvS made 873M which WB saw as underperforming (which it did - film should have easily crossed a billion) however with a film that was 250M in budget - this was still a win. Even if they spent another 250M on Marketing - that’s still 373M in profit and that’s not even taking into consideration home video sales which saw BvS at the top.

Same type of scenario for MoS too. Now WB can’t even recoup their production budget let alone their Marketing ad well lmao just sayin’
TheHumanSpider2
TheHumanSpider2 - 8/1/2023, 9:21 PM
@TheOtherOn - @philinterrupted - Man of Steel actual budget was around $300M, you dont seem to know how BO works...what, you think less than a month after released, they turned its sequel into a Batman movie just for shit and giggles?

Ant-Man 2 made almost the same money as Man of Steel.

ANT. MAN. 2.
TheHumanSpider2
TheHumanSpider2 - 8/1/2023, 9:22 PM
@TheLobster - Again with the fake numbers? after the delays and reshoots, BvS budget was $450M, not only it lost money, not only killed the entire cinematic universe it was suppoused to launch, Warner was expecting, AT LEAST, $2 billions from the movie. AT LEAST.
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 8/1/2023, 10:19 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 - they turned the sequel into a batman movie because WB was desperate for a shared universe like marvel and They had an unimaginative hack like Snyder involved.

You should compare it to Iron Man. That was the first film of the MCU. But it cost half as much as MOS and made 100 mil less.

If WB was more patient in building a universe. They could have had something. But all potential they had was lost when they announce Batman V Superman. Idiots.
Origame
Origame - 8/1/2023, 10:33 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 - ...wtf? How are you getting bvs cost more than endgame and justice league (justice league being a big example since they essentially made a movie then had whedon come in an make a new movie on top of it).

The budget was around 250 mil. You're using rumors as fact.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/04/29/box-office-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-was-a-855m-wash/
rkshuttleworth
rkshuttleworth - 8/1/2023, 11:12 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 - Baloney. Some of you make me truly laugh.
MarkJulian
MarkJulian - 8/2/2023, 8:13 AM
@TheHumanSpider2 - So you're just making up fake budget numbers...
TheLobster
TheLobster - 8/3/2023, 4:38 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 - if you’re saying the production budget alone before marketing was 450 million - please show me where that is confirmed because I don’t believe you lol

I agree they expected billions but they didn’t know how bad shit would go by being so reactionary to the BvS critical reception.

They’re in way worse trouble now regardless.
SpiderParker
SpiderParker - 8/1/2023, 8:08 PM
Yeah, I think its time they replace Gunn with Snyder for Superman Legacy.
Wordsmith
Wordsmith - 8/1/2023, 8:29 PM
@SpiderParker -
SpiderParker
SpiderParker - 8/1/2023, 9:07 PM
@Wordsmith - I mean, not like Snyder killed the franchise. Not like there were 4 psuedo-reboots to try and save the franchise. Not like ZSJL put a ticking bomb on the DCEU. They were very profitable. Very. So might as well bring him back.
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 8/1/2023, 9:09 PM
@SpiderParker - that’s idiotic
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 8/1/2023, 9:18 PM
@philinterrupted -

I think @SpiderParker is elaborating on his sarcasm, not genuinely justifying it. Which come to think of it, is actually how genuine sarcasm is supposed to work. Make others doubtful, not mad.
SpiderParker
SpiderParker - 8/1/2023, 9:31 PM
@DrReedRichards - Crazy how even Honest Trailers can be so entertaining for these movies.
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 8/1/2023, 9:35 PM
@SpiderParker -

What's crazy is how every Honest Trailer for movies we despise is entertaining, whereas the ones for the movies we like are cringey and exaggerated.

No, wait -- not crazy; Predictable.
SpiderParker
SpiderParker - 8/1/2023, 9:52 PM
@DrReedRichards - Without the DCEU, we would surely have less things to amuse ourselves with. Even 10years later. Its correctly said, without the bad, you can't appreciate the good and eventually even the bad can remembered for what it was, a joke.
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 8/1/2023, 9:57 PM
@SpiderParker -

The problem appears, however, when you get used to the bad for so long as your sole competition, that those supporting said bad now feel they are entitled to being given just as much praise with no effort whatsoever.

"I'm not you, ergo I'm better than you just because. Deal with it."
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 8/1/2023, 10:08 PM
@DrReedRichards - I don’t know if your theory checks out. There’s a lot of dumb shit like that said here.
SpiderParker
SpiderParker - 8/1/2023, 11:18 PM
@DrReedRichards -

Problem with ego and arrogance, if someone is told to like or dislike something, general response is to do the opposite even if they themselves inherently agree with the sentiment deep down. Eventually, they end up justifying their own viewpoint to themselves more than they try to justify it to others. Most often, its either going mainstream or hating mainstream, for the sake of it without thinking it through by their own. To the point that they don't realize that the stance of hating the mainstream has itself become pretty mainstream. Honestly, most people have stopped thinking objectively. News was supposed to be objective, but these days its anything but, its not that difficult to understand how people are being manipulated into thinking one way or the other in every corner so some people act out defying the wrong subjects to prove in a way that they are acting and thinking on their own but not really.

@philinterrupted - It checks out, I know it can be hard to distinguish sarcasm from real opinion, but essentially, that's what sarcasm is meant to be. The harder it is to tell apart, the better sarcasm it is but of course the hints are always there.
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 8/2/2023, 5:47 AM
@SpiderParker - written sarcasm is not as easily expressed as verbal sarcasm. Especially when some things have been said unsarcasicallly before.

There needs to be a sarcasm font.
SpiderParker
SpiderParker - 8/2/2023, 7:04 AM
@philinterrupted - If you have to point out its sarcasm, whats the point? Its not sarcasm anymore. Irony and doubt was there in my opinion from the beginning.
Radders
Radders - 8/2/2023, 8:46 AM
@SpiderParker - Its hard to pick out sarcasm when it reflects what some people have actually said lol
SpiderParker
SpiderParker - 8/2/2023, 11:09 AM
@Radders - Which is why it was more fun though. But those people would have said it in a assertive and definitive way, rather than "Yeah, I think", they would have went 'We want/need Snyder', 'Snyder should come back' and would have doubled down on the legitimacy of the profitability.
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 8/2/2023, 12:08 PM
@SpiderParker - do you think I keep track of who is who on this website?
I think there are 2 accounts that I know I’m not going to interact with ever again.
Everyone else falls in the category of “I can’t remember if this person is logic minded or a full blown idiot.”

To be clearly sarcastic you kind of have to go completely over the top. And even then with the people that populate these comments…
Radders
Radders - 8/3/2023, 10:29 AM
@SpiderParker - True, being pretty sarcastic myself I got it
IronGenesis
IronGenesis - 8/1/2023, 8:11 PM
I would love if Snyder did a re-cut Ultimate Edition to ‘Man of Steel’.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 8/1/2023, 8:20 PM
Should have had Snyder continue to do a sequel to his Justice League. That movie is so severely criticized by delusional MCU fanboys but that > anything that came out in phase 4 and i’m a Marvel fan.
SpiderParker
SpiderParker - 8/1/2023, 9:03 PM
@Matchesz - NWH, Shang-Chi, MOM, WV, Loki. Heck, dare I say, even Eternals.
TheLobster
TheLobster - 8/1/2023, 9:13 PM
@Matchesz - yup. They dug the hole they’re currently in by not letting Snyder do his thing. ZSJL is absolutely more popular and even better received critically than Josstice League and Zack had plans to beat Marvel to the punch on a lot of projects such as a Cyborg movie, an Atom movie that would have been largely Asian in cast and narrative, and would have set up a whole universe for WB to take and run with.

Now they’re struggling and losing hundreds of millions of dollars, canceling shit like Batgirl cause they know it’s ass and wanna get a tax write off, and hoping Gunn can win an entire global audience back.

People can hate on Zack all they want (and this site does with a passion) but WB WAS better off with him than where they’re currently at now and that’s speaking objectively.

Anyways the SnyderVerse is over so hopefully Gunn’s universe is solid and not filled to the brim with cringe jokes!
Radders
Radders - 8/2/2023, 8:51 AM
@TheLobster - ZSJL is better than Josstice League but neither are good films, for different reasons.

Much as I dislike the tone of the Snyderverse and hate the direction JL was going to take, I can't deny that right now, they'd be better with him than without.

I don't hold out much hope for Gunn's universe either I'm afraid
dracula
dracula - 8/1/2023, 8:22 PM
Other directors are able to pay for their sequel on their profit alone, even with an increased budget


None of snyder’s movies even made their budget in profit, while his budgets only increase
TheLobster
TheLobster - 8/1/2023, 9:17 PM
@dracula - BvS made 373M in profit after its theatrical run (that’s including Marketing cost and production budget) and then went on to make an estimated 82 million in domestic DVD/Blu-Ray sales alone and that’s not including ITunes or Worldwide so at minimum - that’s 455 million in profit.

Now tell me WB wouldn’t kill for numbers like that right now lol
JDL
JDL - 8/2/2023, 1:06 AM
@TheLobster - Your numbers are wild;y wrong. Here is a link to an Industry Trade with better numbers. If you need help understanding some of the terms just ask for some clarification.

https://deadline.com/2017/03/batman-v-superman-box-office-profit-2016-1202049201/
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 8/1/2023, 8:26 PM
They made money but not the money they may have budgeted for
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