DCU Movies

[Robotman]

Blue Beetle was fantastic! It’s unfortunate that DC/WB has created such a toxic reputation for their brand because this film is so enjoyable!

DC/WB had such a long streak of bad movies and has been so inconsistent that it’s no surprise they’ve totally lost the public’s support. It’s now at the point where even if they produce a good movie like Blue Beetle the audience has long since given up on the brand to even care. I wish things could have been different and it had been released after the reboot. Maybe it will find new life on streaming and people will give it a look if Superman: Legacy is actually good.

I think WB actually did an ok job of promoting Blue Beetle. They started way too late but at least there was number of tie ins, Target had Blue Beetle shirts and kids clothing (which was crazy to see considering he’s basically an unknown character), but the inability of the actors to do things like talk show appearances really hurt it. A basically known property needed all the help it could get and it was seriously handicapped by the strike.

The movie was very enjoyable but low stakes which is a hard sell in the post-Endgame era. The heart of the movie is the family interaction and delving into the Blue Beetle character mythology. Things that didn’t excite people enough to get to the theaters.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

It's weird how most people here are jumping straight to "the public hates DC now" as the reason for a reasonably well-received movie underperforming when there has been actors strike in effect for weeks precluding any sort of promotion by the cast and a months' long writers strike that took late night talk shows (and any chance of promotion there) off the air back in May. Not saying that DC's past blunders didn't play a role, but in all honesty, the dual strike was probably the main contributing factor.

[bat39]

DC/WB had such a long streak of bad movies and has been so inconsistent that it’s no surprise they’ve totally lost the public’s support. It’s now at the point where even if they produce a good movie like Blue Beetle the audience has long since given up on the brand to even care. I wish things could have been different and it had been released after the reboot. Maybe it will find new life on streaming and people will give it a look if Superman: Legacy is actually good.

I think WB actually did an ok job of promoting Blue Beetle. They started way too late but at least there was number of tie ins, Target had Blue Beetle shirts and kids clothing (which was crazy to see considering he’s basically an unknown character), but the inability of the actors to do things like talk show appearances really hurt it. A basically known property needed all the help it could get and it was seriously handicapped by the strike.

The movie was very enjoyable but low stakes which is a hard sell in the post-Endgame era. The heart of the movie is the family interaction and delving into the Blue Beetle character mythology. Things that didn’t excite people enough to get to the theaters.

Blue Beetle is an interesting case in terms of the debate we were all having a while back on this thread - about the relative pros and cons of shared universes as opposed to standalone films.

Here we have a case of a film with a relative obscure character that likely wouldn't have been made if there wasn't a shared universe, and yet has probably suffered because of its association with a shared universe And ultimately, it was actually pretty standalone!

It's weird how most people here are jumping straight to "the public hates DC now" as the reason for a reasonably well-received movie underperforming when there has been actors strike in effect for weeks precluding any sort of promotion by the cast and a months' long writers strike that took late night talk shows (and any chance of promotion there) off the air back in May. Not saying that DC's past blunders didn't play a role, but in all honesty, the dual strike was probably the main contributing factor.

I think you're probably right.

Then again, we'll have to wait and see how things go with The Marvels. If the strikes are still on and The Marvels still does reasonably well, then at a base level, we'd have to acknowledge that Marvel has a significant advantage over DC as a brand capable of dragging butts to theatre seats.

[80sbaby]

Do we really need the Marvels to prove that last point? I think that's been pretty definitively proven for awhile now. In fact, I've said before but apparently it beats repeating but DC films aren't in competition with the MCU. That race has been run and DC came up short. DC is now competing against it's past failures (while the MCU is up against its previous success.)

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

I think you're probably right.

Then again, we'll have to wait and see how things go with The Marvels. If the strikes are still on and The Marvels still does reasonably well, then at a base level, we'd have to acknowledge that Marvel has a significant advantage over DC as a brand capable of dragging butts to theatre seats.

Well, I foresee that the strikes will most likely still be going on. The AMPTP is just NOW starting to negotiate with the WGA again. For context, during the 2007 writers' strike, they resumed negotiations at day 20 and the strike still went until day 100. And they're even further apart now than they were back then.

But also, this is like the third time I've had to be reminded that The Marvels is even coming out this year.

[Confuzzled]

Do we really need the Marvels to prove that last point? I think that's been pretty definitively proven for awhile now. In fact, I've said before but apparently it beats repeating but DC films aren't in competition with the MCU. That race has been run and DC came up short. DC is now competing against it's past failures (while the MCU is up against its previous success.)

Yeah, Guardians 3 and Across the Spider-Verse (not MCU but still) did good to great business. Marvel is at a much better spot than DC. Even if The Marvels underperforms, they have Deadpool 3 next which looks to break out. DC's safest shots right now are the non-Gunn affiliated Joker 2 and The Batman 2, which is not a great sign for the whole shared universe building endeavor.

[HaveAtThee]

I haven't seen Blue Beetle yet but it was released in a difficult spot. WB is still trying to wipe away the prior Snyderverse era, the strikes happening in LA, late summer doldrums, etc. At this point I would not be shocked if they totally threw out the Aquaman sequel a la Batgirl and just said "f*ck it" and claim a loss. For any hope of a shared universe to succeed for WB there needs to be a bit of a gap between the Snyder stuff and the Gunn/Safran reboot. A lot hinges on the new Superman film.

[Coop]

I am skipping Blue Beetle. I like Xolo in Cobra Kai and hope he continues to get work but I just can't trust DCU flicks. There were people all over trying to sell the Flash or even being like "it's worth it for Keaton" and his stuff in the Flash was legitimately embarrassing.

Aquaman is gonna be DOA as well. I'll check out Superman Legacy but the more I learn about Gunn's plans the less new and awesome they sound. It just feels like it will be differently bad. Starting with Tom King in the writers room and now with Muschietti directing The Brave and the Bold. Just feels like the same old mediocre to outright god awful DC products we have been getting for nearly 20 years across all media landscapes. They are finally getting something decent going on with the comics after undoing all the crap they have done since the new 52, but even then we still got Geoff John's watchmen babies and I wouldn't put it passed any of them to shoehorn Watchmen characters into the DCU movies.

[AJpyro]

Jamie Reyes was a fun movie. Despite odd choices, it worked.

[Maestro 216]

Do we really need the Marvels to prove that last point? I think that's been pretty definitively proven for awhile now. In fact, I've said before but apparently it beats repeating but DC films aren't in competition with the MCU. That race has been run and DC came up short. DC is now competing against it's past failures (while the MCU is up against its previous success.)

DC should be the ones on top. The trinity are the most iconic heroes in the world. DC had the blueprint with the DCAU as well.

[Johnny]

DC should be the ones on top. The trinity are the most iconic heroes in the world.

And general audiences clearly couldn't care less about that.

[El_Gato]

Yeah, Guardians 3 and Across the Spider-Verse (not MCU but still) did good to great business. Marvel is at a much better spot than DC. Even if The Marvels underperforms, they have Deadpool 3 next which looks to break out. DC's safest shots right now are the non-Gunn affiliated Joker 2 and The Batman 2, which is not a great sign for the whole shared universe building endeavor.

I’m predicting that both The Batman 2 and Joker 2 underperform and come under the gross of their predecessor films. The Batman wasn’t exactly well received in Asia so that could hurt the sequel.

[skyvolt2000]

It's weird how most people here are jumping straight to "the public hates DC now" as the reason for a reasonably well-received movie underperforming when there has been actors strike in effect for weeks precluding any sort of promotion by the cast and a months' long writers strike that took late night talk shows (and any chance of promotion there) off the air back in May. Not saying that DC's past blunders didn't play a role, but in all honesty, the dual strike was probably the main contributing factor.

No it's NOT. Because just you-we can ALL list those same reasons. We can all offer factual reasons.

You will have that vocal minority-who will ignore that and some will be folks who WORK at DC and might have more power than Gunn.
Who will say this proves why we don't invest in POC heroes. Like we saw with Marvel under a certain person.
Who WILL say Jaime is NOT iconic! We need ICONS.
Because they don't want to LEARN anything.

Do we really need the Marvels to prove that last point?

NO.

The Marvels is coming in phase 4.
A sequel to a movie that made a billion.

Marvel made their point a LONG time ago.

1.6 billion from Dr Strange.
2.5 billion GOTG
2.2 billion Black Panther
1.2 billion Antman
7.5 billion from 10 movies.

DC has 14 movies and NOT there yet.

Show me in what universe does Antman make BEAT Wonder Woman and have MORE movies than her.

The trinity are the most iconic heroes in the world.

The general public does not CARE.

Nobody cares that Static has about 70 comics. They know he had a hit tv show.
Nobody cares Walking Dead, Men in Black and TMNT were comics. They see 2 very successful franchises that Wonder Woman fans WISH she had.

[Bruce Wayne]

DC should be the ones on top. The trinity are the most iconic heroes in the world. DC had the blueprint with the DCAU as well.

WBD bungled it. Snyder was a bad choice and people defended him despite a horrible Superman movie. You reap what you sow.

[Robotman]

DC should be the ones on top. The trinity are the most iconic heroes in the world. DC had the blueprint with the DCAU as well.

They should or at least be neck and neck but WB screwed up massively.

The opening weekend box offices for Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad showed that the movie going public was definitely interested in the characters but both movies were bad and basically killed any momentum they could have built off of.

Aquaman and Wonder Woman were big successes but the DC movies were so damn inconsistent that people gave up on the brand. When the majority of your films are moderate to bad, people are not going to support it and pay their hard earned money to keep being disappointed.

Plus all the behind the scenes drama doesn’t help.

They actually produced a good movie in Blue Beetle but the DC brand is too far gone at this point.