About a week ago a movie hit theatres that some people thought they would never get to see within their lifetime: DC and Warner's 'Justice League'. The comic-book extravaganze designed to rival Marvel's The Avengers came straight off the heels of the critically well recieved 'Wonder Woman', a movie that didn't just take fans by surprise but also seemingly showed Warner Bros. executives that movies starring female superheroes can be success-stories too. Unlike 'Wonder Woman' however 'Justice League' got a critical battering similar to the first outing of DC's cinemativ universe 'Man of Steel'.
While not a complete critical failure like 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' or 'Suicide Squad' the movie was hit relatively hard in the money-making gut, as it would turn out that the film (rumored to have ultimately cost the studio over $300 million to complete) performed well behind expecations set by it's predecessors.
This served as a hit harder than bad reviews or negative word of mouth, a studio will still consider a film valuable despite critical performance if the financial aspect of the release remains positive.
Had the film been a critical dud but performed along the lines of 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' (world wide take: $873,260,194 million) or even better the future of Warner's franchise would certainly be clear. They would go ahead with their announced slate of spin-offs and sequels. Now however the future of this cinematic universe has been thrown into doubt. While DC's newest solo-venture 'Aquaman' is currently shooting and unlikely to halt production the only other movies within this universe that are sure to get made are sequels to the financially successful titles (namely 'Wonder Woman' and 'Suicide Squad') while more team-up movies and solo-films are unlikely to get the green-light in the forseeable future.
Now, weather you blame substitude director Joss Whedon ('The Avengers' & 'Serenity'), former director Zack Snyder ('Watchmen' & '300'), Warner Bros. or some other entity altogether you probably agree that things within the DCEU can not continue they way they're doing right now.
I have wondered the same question and in my mind devised a strategy, obviously not one proven to work so you may dismiss this editorial simple fan-speculation and would be completely justified but I hope that you will find entertainment in this article regardless.
So without further ado: here are 3 battered franchises and strategies to revive these beloved IPs.
The DC Extended Universe:
Having the questionable honor of sparking the idea for this editorial the DCEU poses as the current epitome of troubled franchises. While neither exactly dead with one more movie being released 100% (2018's 'Aquaman') and two likely to happen ('Suicide Squad 2' & 'Wonder Woman 2') it's not exactly alive either, having multiple movies in limbo.
Where does this franchise go from here while avoiding the mistakes of the past?
'Simple', some might say while either wanting director Zack Snyder to be given full reign again or wanting him replaced by a director with a different set of skills, but the answer is far from simple. In my view Warner Bros. has made one significant mistake in the past: it put too much stock in all their movies, giving all of their cinematic DC exploits a ridiculously high budget ranging from $150 million to $300 million. These budgets, while helping to create a visually stunning movie, do nothing for a movie's most essential aspect: the script. Not only that but a high budget creates an even more risk of losing money on the film.
This is what Warner needs to change, create less risk for their upcoming spin-off DC movies, the sequels to success-stories like 'Wonder Woman' and 'Suicide Squad' may have their budgets increased due to earning it (although critics would disagree with the later earning anything). 'But superheroes need a huge budget to work' you might say now and would be right. Superheroes with visually impressive powers like Superman, Green Lantern, Cyborg or The Flash require huge stacks of money to translate to film. This is why instead of going for these budget-pressing heroes I'd urge Warner to pick heroes or villains that are simpler to translate. Characters like Nightwing, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Catwoman, Wildcat, Red Hood or (most notably) Deathstroke.
These characters might not carry names as big as the previously mentioned heroes but do have the simple advantage of being easy to visualize for an action flick with a limited budget.
What I'm suggesting: continue with two streams. Giving 'Wonder Woman' and 'Suicide Squad' sequels while building on their universe with low budgeted solo outings for 'Deathstroke' and 'Nightwing'. If each is given a budget of around $70 million each Warner can lean back and let their directors handle the situation knowing that the DC brand combined with the low budget will recoup the investment.
Will these movies be good? I can't tell. But less meddling from Warner Bros. due to the minimized risk would be a step in the right direction.
The Ghostbusters Franchise:
Oh what a cultural landmine the 2016 reboot was. While accused of "forcing in a political agenda" by casting a female-only cast for Paul Feig's reboot of the beloved 80s classic the studio certainly didn't do itself any favours by launching counter campaigns to label outspoken detractors mysoginist and created a lot of negative press for the movie itself. Not to mention conflicting statements that the movie was set within the original universe and at the same time wasn't (ultimately it turned out the movie existed in it's own universe).
Much has been said about the controversy but what about the movie itself? Well...it certainly was there. While not a good movie it didn't quite fullfill the negative expectations many people had either. The movie was critiqued for flat comedy, an over-reliance on CGI and a cast of characters that felt like every character was supposed to be comic-relief. The lack of enthusiasm for the movie showed in the box-office: the movie made a measily $230 million on a $144 million budget. Enough to recoup the budget for sure but still quite underwhelming considering the IP. As things stand all future Ghostbusters material has been cancelled or quietly shelved, the planned sequels and cinematic universe was canned while there aren't any updates on the animated Ghostbusters film to be seen. The friendships is for all intents and purposes dead in the water. How do you go about reviving it?
By going for a popular trend: nostalgia. Many movies these days exist because of the public demand for more material in franchises people are nostalgic about, Star Wars being the best example. How can that be done for Ghostbusters?
Create an official third Ghostbusters movie set in the original universe, keep out Bill Murray who to this day refuses to return (and yet did so for the reboot, makes you wonder...) following a new diverse and multi gender group of characters. No men or women-only club of characters, represent everyone in this movie. Cast a batch of proven comedians and designate one as the comic relief while portraying the others straight. As for the plot...go all out. Ships full of dead inmates or Zuul returning. If the style, tone and humor is akin to the original fans will appreciate it.
The Star Trek Franchise:
While there was a massive outcry over the seperated timelines of the JJ Abrams helmed trilogy and the original universe there's no denying that the three semi-reboots were well recieved from a critical standpoint. So what went wrong? The box-office did. The third entry in the Kelvin-verse raked in a dissapointing $343 million on a $185 million budget. Now the Star Trek films were never box office smashes but Beyond's take must have seriously soured the execs over at Paramount as there's no word on the production of a fourth movie yet. Even worse for the movie franchise CBS recently launched a new TV prequel set in the original timeline to solid success.
Is the future of Star Trek, once again, TV based? Or is there still hope for more Star Trek movies to come?
No-Yes, is the answer. The Kelvin-universe appears to be done with it's stars moving to other franchises and having their potential salaries reach out of the limits for Star Trek.
Where to go now? Back home. Returning to the original universe and have it set in a future post Picard, Janeway and Kirk could do the trick. Adding a cast consisting of fresh faces and a few well known ones could lure in enough curious fans and newcomers and revitalize a fading franchise. In regards to budgeta basic $110 million one could do and prove as a fairly small risk compared to the possibly bloated budget of a potential sequel to Beyond.
I hope you enjoyed reading my editorial and took something positive from it. All things considered I hope for the best for these franchises as it would be a damn shame to see them die out while under such scrutiny.