Turns Out It's a Good Thing That 'Batman v Superman' Was Such a Failure
The worst scene in Batman v. Superman is also intended to be the film's emotional climax. Basically, the big resolve of the movie is that the mothers of these two superheroes happen to have the same name. Martha! It's dumb as hell-like a plot device a few third graders thought up on the playground while writing some fan fiction. No one can figure out how the hell this scene made it into the movie. Even director Zack Snyder doesn't have a very great explanation for it.
As you probably know, the movie was garbage, and (almost) everyone hated it. Even sad Ben Affleck was sad about the response. Why was it so bad? Well, you can partially blame Snyder, who has a pretty consistent record of bad movies. You can blame the studio for its assumption that fans need bigger, more super epic movies with more superheroes to stay entertained. You can blame Christopher Nolan, for popularizing the style of gritty, dark superhero movies with his Batman trilogy.
After a solid opening weekend, box office numbers dropped off significantly, likely as the abysmal reviews came out. The film has, since its release in late March, made $868.2 million, which is a lot of money (!!), but hardly where anyone projected a film that included both Batman and Superman would be at this point. The Dark Knight Rises, by comparison, made $1.084 billion.
So, it didn't make the money that anyone thought it would. And, had it crossed the $1 billion mark, the studio likely wouldn't have given a damn if it got a 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Luckily, money matters to the enterprising young men and women at a little startup called Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc., and they're making some changes to future DC Comics films.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Current executive vp Jon Berg and Geoff Johns, DC's chief content officer who successfully launched the comics label's foray into television, will co-run the newly created DC Films." It's a move that's intended to streamline a messy greenlight process, putting executives in charge of specific genres.
With Berg and Johns, Warner Bros. is attempting to unify the disparate elements of the DC movies with a seasoned film exec and a comics veteran that together hopefully can emulate the way Marvel Studios has produced its films under the vision of president Kevin Feige. But sources also say Warners still wants to remain a filmmaker-driven studio. As part of their new jobs, Berg and Johns will become producers on the Justice League movies.
As THR reports, more changes are expected to come at senior levels.
It seems like Hollywood inside baseball, and for the most part it is. But even though none of us know who these guys are, it's good to see the studio making changes at the top. You've made your voice heard, you've rocked the vote with your almost universal hate for Batman v Superman (and, more importantly, with your money), and the studio has actually listened. That's the closest we'll get to justice IRL.
