itt: consternation and wailing about Zach Snyder's upcoming SUPERMAN/BATMAN film/sequel to MAN OF STEEL -- official title: BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

that's insane

the cost of making and marketing this was >$800 million??

it is amazing that it made so much so quickly. but i guess that's how it is nowadays.

Break-even point for this global is something like almost a billion, innit?

i've heard $800 billion theatrical, which i think it's almost made already (!!).

With a production budget of $250 million, after rebates and tax incentives and a marketing budget of around $150–160 million,[116] Variety estimates that the film needs to earn $800 million to recoup its investment.

not sure how that adds up to $800m.

Cinemas normally take half.

Plus a marketing budget that was estimated to be higher than the production budget.

(I only ever pay attention to this stuff in bad faith, when I'm actively rooting for a movie to tank.)

maybe i missed it above, but this has had the biggest ever week 1 to week 2 takings drop off for any superhero movie; even worse than the recent Fantastic Four

Zootopia has presently grossed more than Superman v. Batman domestically. It's been out a little longer, sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the ranking will ultimately remain the same.

Cinemas normally take half.

lol no. not even close.

I saw the recent Fantastic Four; it's biggest sin was that it was a little boring but it wasn't as woeful or incoherent as the previous FF movie(s)

^^agree. And visually it had some great setpieces.

Cinemas normally take half.

lol no. not even close.

Admissions ... 2,038.2
Film rental and advertising costs ... 1,093.1

From:

http://investor.regmovies.com/~/media/Files/R/Regal-Entertainment-Group-IR/02%2029%2015%20-%20RGC%2010K%202015%20-%20FINAL.pdf

(i.e. 53.63%)

Don't the numbers vary by territory? Like the studio take in China is only 1/4?

I remember reading somewhere that the studio/theater split changes depending on whether it is opening day or a week later, etc...

Don't the numbers vary by territory? Like the studio take in China is only 1/4?

Yeah, as of 2014/2015, China is around 25%. It was even lower (10-15%).

I remember reading somewhere that the studio/theater split changes depending on whether it is opening day or a week later, etc...

Yep. It starts around 60%, then gradually decreases. The overall take is around 50%.

Still over $100 million short of the break-even estimates. It'll make it there, but it sure don't look like no windfall, and certainly not the foundation upon which to build a series of 9+ subsequent films.

The estimated budget is meaningless since significant pre-production, production, and marketing costs can be spread across multiple (nine!?) films. If you’re curious, Marvel has done this since The Avengers and Pixar has done this exact trick since Toy Story.

(i.e. not only does Hollywood make terrible movies, they are super shady)

xpost Uhhh...why, then, is the narrative that they make most of their money from concessions? I feel like you have to be running your business like some shit if you can't turn a profit on 50% of big Hollywood movie ticket sales.

my schadenfreude takeaway is that BvSM is likely to globally theatrically gross about $100-$150 mill more than deadpool
and it cost $200 mill more to make

I'd read somewhere that WB was hoping for Avengers-level box office. Whether that was just a hopeful projection or something they were pinning the hopes of future movies on or whatever, I don't know. But both Avengers films earned around $1.5 billion globally, so, well...

xpost Uhhh...why, then, is the narrative that they make most of their money from concessions? I feel like you have to be running your business like some shit if you can't turn a profit on 50% of big Hollywood movie ticket sales.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I honestly don't remember the second Biel / Chiklis / Evans / Welshman movie, but the first was pretty good, and beats the recent one in actually turning them into them FF some time in the first half of the movie, and not featuring the news that "It's Clobbering Time" is what Ben Grimm's abusive older brother used to say while he beat him. I'm pretty sure both of those are on the "how to make a FF movie" one-sheet.

FF contain such great movie-making material, it's sad none of it's been properly utilized

There wasn't nearly enough Snapchatting in any of the FF movies, imo.

I honestly don't remember the second Biel / Chiklis / Evans / Welshman movie, but the first was pretty good

I'm gonna stop you right here; the first one succeeded at being "not terrible" but I don't think it made it all the way to "pretty good". It was better than what I was expecting, but what I was expecting was something wholly incompetent and terrible so... low bar.

How was it worse than F4nt4stic? I admit I'm grading it on "How entertaining was it considering it has to fit in the kind of dull origin?" - but I don't think any of what the new one did was an improvement at all.

well to be fair, I didn't see the entirety of the new one; due to kid-wrangling I ended up skipping 20 min in the middle of the movie, which probably doesn't say much for its editing choices

Kate Mara as Sue Storm wasn't nearly as stilted and wooden as Jessica Alba, so that was an immediate improvement. I also thought the new movie's take on Doom was much, much creepier.

my schadenfreude takeaway is that BvSM is likely to globally theatrically gross about $100-$150 mill more than deadpool
and it cost $200 mill more to make

ty for this v satisfying thought

My current guess is that Civil War will probably beat this worldwide and possibly even domestically.

I was always amused by the fact that Horatio Hornblower was cast as Reed Richards

http://comicsalliance.com/files/2016/03/Duel02.jpg?zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89&w=630

http://comicsalliance.com/bizarro-back-issues-batman-v-superman-1964/

More Curt Swan

My current guess is that Civil War will probably beat this worldwide and possibly even domestically.

― I am very inteligent and dicipline boy (Old Lunch), 4. april 2016 19:33 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

iirc BvS and Cap III was at one point scheduled for release on the same day, until wb blinked and moved away. So yeah, I think Cap 3 was always thought of as the bigger hit.

the BIGGER schadenfreude takeaway is that this film stars two of the most recognizable characters of the past century of modern myth; icons that inarguably helped create the market for superhero fiction. it's the first time they've been onscreen together and there's a ridiculous amount of audience interest, cross genre/culture goodwill, abundant appeal to men and women alike. And it's underperforming to an adaptation of a Rob Liefeld funnybook. They fucked up.
give it another week or two with no major spikes in ticket sales (and i can't imagine that anything other than the affleck dying in a car wreck would elevate interest to anywhere near the pre-opening level) and we'll start seeing "how Warner fucked up" trade pieces as they reshuffle release dates or double down on commitments with damn the torpedoes zeal. They may have too much invested in this to do anything more than see the opening slate of films through to 2019. But if they can't score a legit big hit with any of the next three films when this comes crashing down, it could more or less hobble their movie production wing for a decade.

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/batman-v-superman-box-office-second-weekend-drop-1201744845/

Nearly 70% dropoff in sales week to week. Tee hee.

Their hopes are now pinned to that junky looking Suicide Squad movie, featuring two name celebrities (one at least occasionally masked and the other unrecognizable). But at least they're crowbarring some jokes in after the fact, like nonpareils on a gloomy turd.

Part of me feels bad about wishing these movies ill, because I'd genuinely love to see a good Batman & Superman movie or Suicide Squad movie. The problem being WB/DC doesn't give a shit what I or any other actual fans would actually want to see because we're gonna eat what they serve and fucking like it.

um, no one likes turds, even with candy

Suicide Squad won't do that poorly; the director/writer has a history of understanding how to make popular films
more power to them if it's a hit; i'm not resentful of DC or of the hero universe they're trying to build. i'm resentful of snyder.

i really think maybe the big problem with this is that they are largely trying to sell the movie on the Batman angle, and it feels like only yesterday that Nolan wrapped up his Batman trilogy. and despite the less-than universal acclaim that series seems to have received here, audiences for the most part LOVED those movies and still do, and why would they want another version of Batman so quickly? also the movie just didn't look fun from the outset, and it looked like shit visually, and even though Nolan fucked up a couple of action scenes his movies actually LOOK ok.

a batman and superman movie shouldn't be a VS thing, it should have been a buddy movie. these guys are so mismatched but they have to solve some crimes together!

https://espngrantland.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/tango-and-cash_146f7db9.jpg

L-R: bruce wayne, clark kent

so strange that they spend all this money on the actors and marketing and universe building and the choice of picking director/writers to best thematically match the material seems almost like an afterthought... i guess they gleaned SOMETHING from the comic book business

it's not that hard! Brad Bird should do Superman! Pay Burton a gazillion dollars and let him do Batman!

On March 10, 2015, It was confirmed that Burton will direct a live-action adaptation of Disney's Dumbo.

It seems like WB is having trouble attracting A-level talent, a problem that's surely going to compound if this movie continues to underperform. It's not unlike the talent roster on the comics, where every soft reboot of the line temporarily piques my interest before I realize that DC still doesn't have many names working on the books.

how did that anecdote from ted turner go again? the one about how Warner is completely underusing Superman/Wonder Woman/Batman and has been for decades? I guess now it's misusing more so.
the fact that they have managed to build a workable television pantheon that they are completely ignoring in favor of pulling in ringers for movie usage is just so goddamn dumb. what is the upside in building a popular flash television show and then not using the actor who plays the flash as the flash in the film?