Warner Brothers had a big weekend with the release of the Superman reboot, Man of Steel. While the film is putting up Iron Man 3 numbers it has the second largest opening of the summer with a $125.1 million box office grab this weekend. That includes an estimated 12 million from Thursday night shows.
Despite my personal misgiving with parts of the movie this is exactly what DC and WB needed. A successful Man of Steel opens doors for new DC movies and hopefully to establish a definitive world like Marvel has done with The Avengers and the associated tie-in movies.
My personal hope is that Warner Bros and DC would take their time to setup this world instead of rushing things. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that WB and DC is doing the exact opposite and rushing a Man of Steel sequel to setup a future Justice League Movie. The WSJ states that according to a knowledgeable source: “Warner is already in development on a sequel to “Man of Steel” and is expected to fast track that for release as soon as 2014.”
With a CGI heavy film I can’t help but think this is bad decision. Maybe its overly cynical of me, but I can’t help but think that is a move motivated by greed. Man of Steel is the first non-Batman DC movie to be successful in years, and a fast tracked sequel is good way to cash in on that. The problem is rushing a film that is CGI heavy and that reportedly does not yet have a script means there is a very short timeline to film the movie and then perform all the post production special effects.
It has also been reported by the Wall Street Journal that Warner Bros has long been developing a “Justice League” team-up movie that would feature characters such as the Flash and Wonder Woman targeted for as soon as 2015. I can understand why DC and WB want to move forward with a Justice League movie. Disney and Marvel had huge success with The Avengers, and of course WB/DC would like to have the same success with a team-up movie like Justice League. The difference between the two is that Marvel spent years building up their cinematic world so that when The Avengers was released, people already knew the heroes.
The issue with a Justice League movie is that the only established hero will really be Superman and then possibly Green Lantern. That assumes the Green Lantern movie isn’t swept under the rug. I highly doubt that version of Batman established in the Nolan-verse is what we will see in Justice League. After all, who wants to see a Justice League movie without Bruce Wayne under the cowl? It would be a hard sell.
The Justice League
Outside of those characters who is really known by a mainstream audience though? My hope is that these rumors are just that, rumors and DC/WB decide to use a Marvel-like approach to develop some of their lesser known characters before trying to pull off Justice League. Remember, it was just a few years ago that Joss Whedon approached Warner Bros about wanting to do a Wonder Woman movie. He was turned away as it was deemed a property no one was interested in seeing on the big screen. I can’t help but think that that movie combined with Man of Steel, and possibly even Green Lantern would have made a great foundation for DC cinematic world.
I know the prospect of a huge box office score is out there and both Man of Steel 2 and Justice League could lead to huge numbers. But, I think its going to be tough with both movies. A rushed Superman and a Justice League where the heroes are not as well known is a tough combo. Before people start calling me a hater, please realize I really want these movies to work, much like I really wanted to love Man of Steel. But to me, I think they are setting themselves up for possible failure in the future.
That being said, the success of both Marvel and DC movies is great for comic fans like me. Just think, assuming these reports for the WSJ are true we will have a great trifecta of movies in the summer of 2015. Right now The Avengers 2, Star Wars 7, and Justice League 2 are slated for the same summer. If you had told me a few years back I could look forward to these three movies in one summer I would have called you a liar. Despite my misgivings over a rushed Man of Steel sequel leading into a Justice League movie I really hope they are good. How about you all, what do you expect to happen with these upcoming DC movies?
