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The DCEU Death Spiral

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Over a year ago, I predicted that Justice League would under-perform, leading to a soft reboot of DC Entertainment, and the entire DCEU. I was wrong. JL is bombingCurrent tracking has the film making less than $100m this weekend, far below the barely acceptable estimates of $120m. With Warner’s DCEU drop-off being historically well over 60% for successive frames, this means JL is gonna clear somewhere around $400-$450m worldwide.

That might sound like a lot of money, but for this movie, it’s nothing. A huge loss. The movie itself cost $300m. With global P&A (release materials and marketing) costing a bare minimum of $150m, Justice League needs to make something like $700m-$750m just to break even. Apparently, even fanboys will eventually stop eating what you serve if 4/5 of what you feed them is dogfood marketed as steak.

It’s safe to say that heads are gonna roll. Warner’s has needed a kick in the ass for some time. Diane Nelson (president of DC Entertainment) is no Kevin Feige (her opposite number at Marvel), and her obsessive support for Zack Snyder, despite each successive disappointment and disaster costing more — and failing bigger — than the last, has been mystifying.

Even if Tangerine Caligula bullies the DOJ into killing the AT&T purchase of Time/Warner in his lust to kill CNN, you’re still going to see a complete restructuring of DCE. If the sale does happen, you’re likely to see something a bit more slash and burn. You might even see DC sold off (to Viacom? Verizon? Facebook, even?) to a brand-hungry interloper who wants to start fresh, leaving Warner Bros. to flog the Harry Potter franchise into oblivion.

Let me tell you what isn’t going to happen: That solo Flash film that has no script or director. Or The Batman, which doesn’t have a script or a star. Or Suicide Squad 2 (because that was a good idea), or Shazam or the Harley Quinn movie.

James Wan’s Sawquaman is in the can, so that will get a dramatically scaled-back release and die quietly after a week in theaters. Wonder Woman 2 will probably move forward, since WW was the ONLY bright spot in the entire, dismal DCEU firmament. It think it’s more likely, though, that it will turn into the DCEU reboot film that Justice League was supposed to be (rebooting the DCEU after Man of Steel booked them into a shitty hotel, Batman v Superman got drunk and trashed the place, and Suicide Squad broke in and shit all over the beds).

The problem is Warner wanted that billion dollar payday, and they wanted it quick. They thought they could simply mimic Marvel’s model, let Zack cherry-pick his favorite moments from various comics he didn’t really understand, and that had nothing to do with each other, and slap it all together in a grim, mass-murdering package.

So, Warner… It’s time to clear the Etch-a-Sketch on the DC Extended Universe. Shake that fucker up, keep Snyder away from the lot, hire some people who have EVER read a comic, and stop trying to be Marvel. You’re bad at it.


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