The Last Words: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

A False Dawn?

♦In the first in an occasional column, today Tripwire editor-in-chief Joel Meadows talks about the final box office fate of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

So it was released on 25 March 2016 to fairly mixed reviews. Everyone said that it was enjoyable but far too dark, far too long and with a script that was all over the place. As of this writing, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has grossed $862.9m. That makes it the seventh highest grossing superhero film of all time globally. In the US, it is just outside the Top 10 of superhero films in cinema history. So what does this mean? Is it a flop or is it just a very successful superhero film?

One of the problems here is that in 2016 superheroes dominate the summer movie season, which interestingly has been getting earlier and earlier each year. Marvel cannily began in April the last few years and so Warner Bros. had to try and stake their claim with a release at the end of March.

Not every blockbuster film can hit the $1bn mark. Marvel do have the advantage because Captain America: Civil War staggeringly is the 13th Marvel movie to be released. A lot was riding on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It had to set up DC’s version of the Marvel cinematic universe and Warner Bros. effectively had to do in one film what Marvel have taken eight years to achieve.ComScore’s Paul Dergarabedian put its box office into some kind of perspective, commenting on Yahoo:

“In what world is $862 million not a hit? Despite tepid reviews and mixed audience response, the power of the brand and the novelty of the two iconic super heroes going ‘mano a mano’ has delivered an unqualified global success. From a box office perspective this is a blockbuster hit no matter how you slice it.

“Now if you want to talk about the emotional enmity and critical lack of enthusiasm for the film, that’s a separate and distinctive argument,” Dergarabedian continued. “However that’s not relevant to box office-centric perspective that says this movie is a hit.”

Captain America: Civil War will probably beat BvS but in some ways, it doesn’t matter. Warner Bros. have mostly done what they set out to do, to create a DC Movie Universe. All of the criticisms of Snyder’s approach to this film are valid but if Warner Bros. can learn from the mistakes of Dawn of Justice, then they can certainly give Marvel a run for their money. Affleck (Batman) is a very decent director (he won an Oscar for Argo) so that does augur well for the standalone Batman film and Wonder Woman does look intriguing.

What it has proven is that the superhero movie bubble has yet to burst and it will be interesting to see if anything has changed at the end of this year after yet another X-Men movie (X-Men: Apocalypse), DC’s next big-screen outing, Suicide Squad, and Marvel’s Doctor Strange.

JOEL MEADOWS

Follow Joel Meadows on twitter @twitter/joelmeadows1