The DCEU Is Dead So Isn't It Time For A New Direction?

[The Dark Knight]

Blue Beetle will bomb.

The writing's on the wall for the superhero genre. It's had its day. Joker and No Way Home are the only superhero movies released post-Endgame to cross the billion dollar mark. Most of DC's recent movies have all either tanked or barely broken even, and even the MCU is seeing diminishing box office returns and declining viewership for its increasingly poor TV content. The bubble has well and truly burst and general audiences want something different. There will always be a market for icons like Batman and Spider-Man, and a select few will continue making a profit, but the time has passed when you could churn out movies based on any C-list Marvel/DC properties and expect a gross north of $600 million.

I predict Joker 2 and The Flash might do all right, but the rest of DC's upcoming slate, including Aquaman 2 and James Gunn's Superman movie, will struggle and likely underperform.

The fact the director of Blue Beetle openly called for murder against a politician he doesn't like won't help matters. If someone from the other side of the aisle had written something similar, you can bet he'd have been given the Gina Carano treatment. Evidently the industry's moral outrage only flows in one direction.

Well said. The icons will endure as they always have but superfluous side characters won't have the same staying power. We've already seen the drop off. I think it goes to show how strong The Batman's final box office total was when you consider what has been happening recently with all these flops. It was a respectable and solid showing that did enough to justify a sequel despite the overall sense of fatigue, and the movie itself was above most in the genre. People are generally going to show up for Batman because it's a bigger part of the culture. It's like SAS selection - only a select few actually pass. The rest are eventually culled. We're especially going to be less tolerant to the product if it's being made by the likes of Gunn and Soto.

[thecolorsblend]

Epic post, SN. And very true.

I predict Joker: Folie à Deux will do great. Lady Gaga's fans are not to be underestimated. They'll follow her to hell and back. Twice. They will show up for JFAD. You can take that to the bank. So, I'm not too worried about that movie's box office prospects. Plus, I think we can add Iron Man and Cap to franchises that will probably always have life at the box office like Batman and Spider-Man.

But otherwise... yeah, things aren't looking good.

[Travesty]

I really hated the "Batman is a fascist" line at the end of the Blue Bettle trailer. Once I heard that, I already made up my mind. It's a big skip from me.

[The Dark Knight]

I predict Joker: Folie à Deux will do great. Lady Gaga's fans are not to be underestimated. They'll follow her to hell and back. Twice. They will show up for JFAD. You can take that to the bank. So, I'm not too worried about that movie's box office prospects.

I agree. If the sequel needs a bump to help it up the box office and approach anything remotely similar to the original it's the Gaga factor. It's the projects that get labelled Black Label or Elseworlds that contain the real excitement. It's been that way for a while now, even in comics. The main line is woefully average but projects like White Knight or Earth One have kept things going.

I really hated the "Batman is a fascist" line at the end of the Blue Bettle trailer. Once I heard that, I already made up my mind. It's a big skip from me.

Me too, and others feel the same way. Don't underestimate the impact of that one line. Creators communicate their own thoughts and feelings through the characters. The line doesn't just belong to that one character, it belongs to the whole movie: the human beings who wrote it and left it there.

[thecolorsblend]

I really hated the "Batman is a fascist" line at the end of the Blue Bettle trailer. Once I heard that, I already made up my mind. It's a big skip from me.

Yeah. That's the trailer's parting line.

I have no idea what this movie's opening weekend would've been. But if someone claims that one line took $50 million off the opening weekend, I could convince myself of that.

I find it curious that the trailer's YouTube page only has positive, effusive bots comments. There's been a pretty big negative reaction to the "fascist" line and I find it odd that literally nobody is mentioning that in the comments (except in a positive way).

[The Dark Knight]

I wouldn't be surprised if they're deleting negative (truthful) comments from the page. Nothing gets universal praise like that in the real world. They can only suppress reality for so long as the real test will be at the box office. Shazam 2 is already available on digital platforms, less than a month after its theatrical release. That's the true definition of a flop. I won't be seeing Blu Beetle, but I'll be all over the aftermath.

[The Laughing Fish]

I read a news headline of Gunn claiming that DC Studios has talked to Marvel Studios about a potential universe crossover at some point later on in the future. He must've swindled Zaslav into this idea about giving him total control to do whatever he wants, thinking this gimmicky circus act is what general audiences really want.

I really hated the "Batman is a fascist" line at the end of the Blue Bettle trailer. Once I heard that, I already made up my mind. It's a big skip from me.

Yeah. That's the trailer's parting line.

I didn't bother watching the Blue Beetle trailer, but I assume that line was meant to be some dumb joke? Whether it was or not, this is a common train of thought that idiotic pseudo-intellectuals say about Batman on Twitter.

I find it curious that the trailer's YouTube page only has positive, effusive bots comments. There's been a pretty big negative reaction to the "fascist" line and I find it odd that literally nobody is mentioning that in the comments (except in a positive way).

YouTube doesn't show the thumbs-down ratio for videos anymore. Their excuse is to "protect creators", but this is really about protecting the egos of those in charge of mega companies like Disney and Warners who don't like getting negative feedback. So yes, it's not unreasonable to suspect these companies are manipulating the comments section to make something more appealing than it really is.

[thecolorsblend]

Apropos of nothing, I guess. But if a Blue Beetle movie MUST exist, am I the only one who would find it kind of amusing if Patrick Wilson starred as Ted Kord in a fun, lighthearted Beetle movie? Sort of the opposite style of Watchmen.

Maybe I'm all alone on that one.

[The Joker]

With George Lopez calling Batman a "fascist", can we at least have Batman throw a coffee mug at his head?

[The Laughing Fish]

This is yet another reminder that James Gunn is a dickhead. Enough said.