DC Blinks First: Batman v Superman Won't Compete with Captain America 3

[harpere]

DC Blinks First: Batman v Superman Won't Compete with Captain America 3

Warner Bros has shifted Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to a March release -- as well as setting the schedule for as yet unknown DC movies.

Hooray! We won't have to make the tough choice on whether we want to see Batman v Superman or Captain America 3 on May 6, 2016, because DC has moved Dawn of Justice to March 25, 2016. (Hm, could the massive success of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136591-Friday-Box-Office-Guardians-of-The-Galaxy-Is-a-Record-Breaking-Smash] have anything to do with this? Probably!) With this date shift, there are also a host of dates reserved for future, unnamed DC movies. The current schedule:

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice - 03/25/16
Untitled DC Film - 08/05/16
Untitled DC Film - 06/23/17
Untitled DC Film - 11/17/17
Untitled DC Film - 03/23/18
Untitled DC Film - 07/27/18
Untitled WB Event Film - 11/16/18
Untitled DC Film - 04/05/19
Untitled DC Film - 06/14/19
Untitled DC Film - 04/03/20
Untitled DC Film - 06/19/20
Untitled WB Event Film - 11/20/20

These dates don't exactly line up with previous rumors [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/135362-RUMOR-Warner-Bros-to-Unveil-Seven-Film-Wave-of-DC-Universe-Movies-at-SDCC] about a massive planned DC universe, building into Justice League, to rival Marvel's growing cinematic empire. However, there are more dates reserved here than the rumored slate of Batman v Superman, Shazam, Sandman, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern team-up, and Man of Steel 2... but what exactly each of these dates is reserved for, we can only speculate. (Here's to hoping that Wonder Woman is on the first half of that agenda.)

Source: Deadline [http://www.deadline.com/2014/08/batman-v-superman-new-release-date-warner-bros-dc/]

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[Zhukov]

What a shock.

Kinda feel sorry for DC. I mean, their current movie offerings probably would have been considered great if they'd been released, say, ten years ago.

But in the current climate they're just Those Superhero Movies Not Made by Marvel, and they know it.

 

[Jeremy Dawkins]

No confidence in your new movie eh, DC? Just like most of the world.

 

[KazeAizen]

No confidence in your new movie eh, DC? Just like most of the world.

Honestly can you blame them? I'm sure the film will be good. It could even be great. It has a shit load of talented people working on it and a stellar cast, yes even Gal Gadot. I'm sure it would be a different story if Man of Steel had better reviews instead of the mixed ones and made a bit more money. Also after Winter Soldier Cap would probably be the last Marvel series I'd want to go up against. People are saying that Winter Soldier is going to be one of those legendary comic book movies that people talk about years down the road.

For them right now it probably is the best choice to play it safe. So they can get their money and if the film is good so they can start building the loyalty that Marvel films have. They aren't in a position to compete directly with something like Captain America. It'd be like a level 5 Bulbasaur going up against a level 50 Charizard. We all know how this is going to end.

 

[RossaLincoln]

No confidence in your new movie eh, DC? Just like most of the world.

I think it's slightly more complicated than that. Regardless of their confidence in the movie - and I have to assume they have a lot - the fact is that they've already made a couple of blunders, first and foremost the fact that WB apparently didn't even have anything in actual development for the DCCU that could have gone into production the second they decided Man of Steel was a hit. I mean, they had a deal with Snyder that he'd do it, obviously, but they didn't have any pre production on anything in real terms. Hell, they still haven't bothered to announce whatever the hell movies they're planning to fit into those release dates. EDIT: Yes the original release date for BVS was july, 2015, but then they pushed it to 2016 soon after. So they really didn't have anything.

Which means, in the three years between Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, Marvel will have had Thor 2, Cap 2, Guardians, Avengers 2, and Ant-Man. After the success of guardians, DC/WB know for a fact that the Marvel brand name is solid gold. They also know that their entire plans for a DC Cinematic Universe completely and totally depends on Batman v Superman hitting big. Obviously, it was stupid of them not to have had something in production they could have released in 2015, but that's too late now. So they're doing the smart thing and moving BVS to a release slot where it will be able to breathe and succeed on its own, without the added risk of everyone noticing if it fails to beat Cap 3. Especially because if it failed to beat Cap 3 during release weekend, then the internet chatter would be that it sucks, regardless of quality.

Of course, now they have the humiliation of everyone knowing that they staked out that release date first, then marvel just moved in and DC/WB blinked. If I were DC/WB, I'd be planning a seriously big announcement for very soon, something like Wonder Woman will be the film released in August of 2016.

 

[dragongit]

Sort of hard to compete with Marvel. They have had a couple bad movies, but they've been having a hell of a run for the last 5 years. DC has had what... arguably 3 decent movies, all of them being batman. and even then the first and third were sort of median. Meanwhile Guardians of the Galaxy is already making near 200 million in a week, the Avengers closed with 1.5 billion dollars in the bank. Trying to put anything up against a Marvel movie, especially something that has the crowd skeptical like a new batman change, is suicide.

 

[PunkRex]

I went to an all boys school, there's only one way to handle this...

PUUUUUUSSSYS!

No offense intended to any cats who may read this. Probably for the best DC, you gotta Rocky that shit, lift a few rocks, bench a few wagons, THEN take on the mountain.

 

[Zontar]

I'm not surprised, saw it coming a mile away. This was kind of inevitable given the whole issue of just which brand names where fighting.

But man, those 11 films look pretty... uninteresting, given the lack of actual names attached to them. Though I do hope it means Marvel will increase production, even if only with lower budget movies (20-50 million) for the off season. I'd probably go and see a few of those out of interest and would probably buy them.

Now that I think about it though, does this mean DC may actually move from 4th place up to 2nd? I mean, Sony has all of 2 movies and only 2 in production at any level, with pretty long periods until release, and Fox isn't going nearly as quickly with their own movies.

 

[Nuxxy]

The funny thing is I don't think Marvel wants DC to fail. They don't want DC's success to come at their expense, but wouldn't have an issue if they both did well.

I'm not so confident about how Disney and Warner Bros feel.

Captcha: for sure

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

It was only a matter of time before DC moved it. No surprise there, since Marvel flat out said they weren't moving Cap3. While I kind of wanted to see what would happen, it's better for both franchises this way. I am kind of surprised at how many dates they have lined up for future films.

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

y'know...that's an awful lot of "Untitled DC Film"s...

as a non American...i can see Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman as genuinely "iconic"...which is a pretty big deal given the comics these characters come from basically haven't been historically sold here and still pretty much aren't outside a one very small chain of shops (Forbidden Planet)...

that is to say "US comic book culture" ISN'T universal.

but frankly every other DC "property"..."seems a bit shit"...and doesn't in the slightest pique my interest...

...and i'm a geek/nerd whatever, who used to go to Forbidden Planets, with far more interest in this sorta thing than most of the people around me.

even the next in line in the pantheon...Aquaman...all i know about him is he's supposedly sucks, lives in/is king of the sea, seems a bit like "the man from atlantis" (an old 70s TV show staring Patrick Duffy) and can control fish...which totally sounds like he was last in line for superpowers tbth...and as i said before "a bit shit".

"i gotta bad feeling about this"

i think they are overplaying their hand...and i think, in all honesty, they don't have much of an international hand to begin with outside the 3 i originally mentioned...although those 3 are the aces of the entire comic book industries deck.

[small]ps 4th ace ? Spiderman i reckon.[/small]

actually Aquaman as a character and Super Hero isn't shit at all, he is quite powerful. just most of his useful powers everyone else already has, and his unique powers are very situational. his main problem though has been shit writers who didn't give a shit about the character, and were upset they couldn't something more popular like Batman or Superman.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Kinda feel sorry for DC. I mean, their current movie offerings probably would have been considered great if they'd been released, say, ten years ago.

Except for the first two Dark Knight movies, they would just be those movies not made by Sony, since they'd be butting heads with Xmen 1/2 and Spider Man 1/2 (see for reference, Catwoman, Superman Returns).

Green Lantern could come out in any era and it would still be a turd. The other two recent DC movies might have fit better in the early nineties when everyone got a bit carried away with dark and edgy, but in an era where an animated Raccoon be taken completely seriously as a dramatic character it just comes across as posturing and unnecessary.

 

[Something Amyss]

Honestly can you blame them?

Not on the lack of confidence in the film, but perhaps in their decision to try and make a franchise out of one of the more questionable recent superhero movies.

 

[Racecarlock]

The sad thing is that the justice league used to be my avengers. Back when they were just a paul dini and bruce timm cartoon, they were fantastic. Justice League Unlimited had so many good episodes, and each one would have a different team up of heroes. It was like getting a different 22 minute avengers movie every damn week and it was awesome.

Now we've decided that for some reason aliens from other planets with heat vision and super strength need to be all realistic and gritty. As if the very notion of being colorful is like poison.

No worries, though. I've got marvel now.

 

[Sylocat]

Spoiler: As Cap himself said...

And let us not forget that DC only moved BvS to that May date in the first place (it had been slotted for 2015, but then they figured it wouldn't be ready in time) to try and take Marvel down a peg by forcing them to move aside. It was an incredibly juvenile show of bullying... showing up with the big hyped DC team-up movie and setting it against a Marvel solo outing.

You know, you could make a meta-comic out of this. DC figured Cap wouldn't dare take on Batman AND Superman without the rest of the Avengers backing him up. But instead, Cap said "No, you move," and lo and behold, Captain America fought off Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all at once.

 

[Zhukov]

Kinda feel sorry for DC. I mean, their current movie offerings probably would have been considered great if they'd been released, say, ten years ago.

Except for the first two Dark Knight movies, they would just be those movies not made by Sony, since they'd be butting heads with Xmen 1/2 and Spider Man 1/2.

Those were actually the exact films I was thinking of.

I'm pretty sure Man of Steel would have crushed the likes of X-Men 1&2. And that's coming from someone who didn't much like MoS, except for the one action scene.

Don't know about the Spider Man movies. My opinion of them seems to differ from the standard. I thought they were rubbish when I first watched them (second one had some good bits though) . I was very surprised to learn that they were well regarded by both geeks and the wider public.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Hahaha. Called it. Of course they moved it. They're not stupid enough to compete with Cap 3.

 

[KazeAizen]

Honestly can you blame them?

Not on the lack of confidence in the film, but perhaps in their decision to try and make a franchise out of one of the more questionable recent superhero movies.

Fair enough. Still its not like Amazing Spider-man and it hasn't had the chance to spin out of control yet like that already has. Man of Steel is still good enough that if they take away Goyer and keep Affleck on board throughout the process they could turn it into something special.

 

[RJ 17]

I think they should have stood firm on this one, as my money says that Batman v Superman would trounce Cap'n 3 based purely on the fact that it's a movie with Batman and Superman...and they're apparently going to fight at some point.

Spoiler: This helpful video pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter.