Get In Line, Boys

By now I'm sure you all know about the Justice League of America movie that they're totally making because The Avengers made eleventy billion dollars in like four days. It's probably pretty obvious that if I could already have bought my ticket and camped out in front of the theater, I would have. 

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that it could potentially do massive damage to The Avengers' current record as the third biggest movie of all time.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/06/07/the-avengers-versus-justice-league-of-america/

Here's my take: Uh, no. 

Here are the numbers for the latest Marvel superhero franchise (and potential franchise) films:

THE AVENGERS

Production Budget (not counting marketing costs): 225M

US Gross (so far): 587M

Worldwide Gross: appx 1.3B

That's a shit-ton of cash, yo.


For a detailed report on mine and my friends' take on this movie, go here. Try to stick around until the end, even after my history lesson on superpowers.

Movies Based On Avengers Characters (Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America):

IRON MAN/IRON MAN 2

Combined PB: 356M

Combined DG: 631.M

Combined WWG: 1.2B

Marvel is currently casting Iron Man 3. Apparently The Mandarin is in it. THE MANDARIN, people!!!!

THIS GUY!!!!!

Sorry, I'll stop.

THOR

PB: 150M

DG: 181M

WWG: 449.3M

Marvel is planning a second Thor movie. Also, Chris Hemsworth's career has blown up since the first Thor.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

PB: 140M

DG: 176.6M

WWG: 369.7M

I personally thought this film sucked a lot of ass, but I guess people liked it, since there are plans for a sequel. Also, Captain A is a wuss and one of the worst superheroes ever. Even Shelly hates him, and Shelly likes everyone. "Oh, I'm small and everyone is mean to me. I'll take some drugs and get some superpowers!" Whatever.

THE HULK

Combined PB: 274.5M

Combined DG: 267M

Combined WWG: 508.6M

It was recently announced that there are talks for a rebooted franchise built around Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk/Bruce Banner.

However, there are no plans for a stand-alone series for Black Widow or Hawkeye. That's retarded. Have you seen Jeremy Renner's arms? 

Mm-hm. That is all kinds of Special Ops, if you get what I'm sayin'. And you guys ALWAYS get what I'm sayin' (I'm not very subtle).

X-MEN

(Includes Combined Production Budgets, Domestic Grosses and Worldwide Grosses for X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: First Class)

Combined PB: 570M

Combined DG: 753M

Combined WWG: 1.5B

There will, of course, be a sequel to First Class. They are also planning an Origins project around Magneto. I pray that this stars Michael Fassbender. And um, his junk.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

WOLVERINE:

PB: 150M

DG: 179.8M

WWG: 374.8M

The only real disappointment of the X-Men franchise, I heard that they scrapped plans for the Origins series until the success of First Class, when Fassbender stole the movie and they brought it back with Magneto.

SPIDER-MAN

(Includes Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3)

Combined PB: 597M

Combined DG: 1.1B

Combined WWG: 2.5B

At the time, the first Spider-Man had the biggest opening of all time, becoming the first film to pass the 100M mark. It later became surpassed by its sequel. Spider-Man earned 114M its opening weekend and 39M in a single day.

The PB on this summer's The Amazing Spider-Man is 175M, and it's one of the film industry's most highly anticipated films of the year. My friends and I are personally not that jazzed about it, but I'll still probably see it anyway. It is a superhero movie.

FANTASTIC FOUR

(Includes Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)

Combined PB: 207.5M

Combined DG: 286.6M

Combined WWG: 618.9M

Marvel is currently rebooting this series. Hopefully it'll be better than the shit sandwich that was the first one. Also, I'm guessing Chris Evans will NOT make an appearance, although that would be kind of funny.

DAREDEVIL

PB: 80M

DG: 102.5M

WWG: 182.M

ELEKTRA

PB: 65M

DG: 24.4M

WWG: 56.4

Daredevil and Elektra both made about six dollars at the box office. I heard that Marvel is planning a Daredevil reboot starring Josh Hartnett as Matt Murdock.

GHOST RIDER

(Includes Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance)

Combined PB: 177M

Combined DG: 167.6M

Combined WWG: 347.4

The PB for the second Ghost Rider was WAY lower than the first- about 150 million lower, probably due to either A) the performance of the first film or

B) the fact that "starring Nicolas Cage" is enough to keep the entire country away from the movie theater.

DC has less of a well-known lexicon, and therefore not as many characters to work with. A lot of their upcoming movies are taken from their graphic novel off-shoot companies (in particular, Wildstorm, Vertigo and Zuda). Here are the numbers for their most famous, and recent, franchises. FYI, the CW has also greenlit a series for the DC character of Green Arrow for this fall. We'll see how well that goes.

I'm not including the Superman and Batman movies before the 2000's, because those aren't recent enough.

BATMAN

BATMAN BEGINS

PB: 150M

DG: 205.3M

WWG: 372.7M

THE DARK KNIGHT

I feel as if I shouldn't even include this in here, since The Dark Knight raised the bar for not only comic book movies, but film in general in regards to acting, writing, directing, cast credentials, anticipation and box office. HOWEVER- it is, technically a superhero movie.

PB: 185M 

DG: 533.3M

WWG: 1B

The PB for this summer's The Dark Knight Rises is 250M. THIS is my most anticipated movie of 2012. You could not pay me enough money not to be there opening day. I'll sneak in if I have to. The amount of money this movie is going to make is absolutely ridiculous. I don't even want to know. Also, to prevent against the backlash the Academy faced when it failed to recognize The Dark Knight, I'm also predicting Oscar nominations.

UPDATE- guess who just bought her ticket for OPENING NIGHT. IN IMAX.

This girl. OH YEAH.

CATWOMAN

PB: 100M

DG: 40.2M

WWG: 82.1M

This movie, despite being part of the Batman universe, was a critical mess and failed to perform. 

Much like my ex. Zing.

SUPERMAN

SUPERMAN RETURNS

PB: 232M

DG: 200.1M

WWG: 390.9M

This wasn't a certified disaster, but it was disappointing. Plans for sequels were nixed due to the backlash thrown at the cast, writing and directing. When you think about how awesome the first two Superman movies were, this film did, in fact, blow copious amounts of ass. 

Also, my dad and I hated it to the point where he got really mad and almost asked for his money back. Dad still talks about this. It's like his 'Nam.

2013's reboot Man of Steel has a PB of 175M. Most Superman fans (and myself) are very apprehensive about this movie. I'm not sure how well it will do- it's been moved around a few times; reactions to stills and casting have not been great and people are still pissed about Superman Returns. I'm guessing it's a fail, but I'll form a better opinion closer to the date. I'll also wait for reviews to decide whether or not to spend my money.

WATCHMEN

PB: 138M

DG: 107.5M

WWG: 184.7M

Everyone said that this couldn't be adapted onto the screen, and they were right. The reaction was awful (except for the great beginning sequence, the film itself was underwhelming). However, DC are planning sequels, in the form of graphic novels.


Check out how the poster claims that the movie is "From the Visionary Director of 300." Considering the collapse of Watchmen, the abortion that was Sucker Punch and the crap in between those two that I've never even heard of, I'm going with Yeah. No.


Don't think so.

Of course, based on the critical and commercial death of Watchmen, DC and Warner Bros. went with the only logical choice to direct Man of Steel- Zack Snyder. Again. 

GREEN LANTERN

PB: 200M

DG: 116.6M

WWG: 222M

This bombed pretty badly, although I heard that DC wants to do a sequel anyway. I didn't see it. Valiant effort, but no dice.

Also, DC has been looking for a vehicle for Wonder Woman, and this JLA film may be their way of trying to get that off the ground. They recently tried a TV pilot, and it was a total failure. The costume looked like one of those dog costumes from Party City. Apparently they've been trying to get a movie going for years, and that hasn't worked either.

I would totally see this movie. Twice.

If you look at the numbers between Marvel and DC, Marvel's box office and critical reception are far better than DC's (not counting The Dark Knight- that movie is an anomaly). They also have a larger lexicon, which attracts a bigger fanbase and allows for more movies/spin-offs/franchises/merchandise, and constantly introduce more recent characters that keep evolving, which equals a younger audience. DC recently tried this with the "New 52," which rebooted their older franchises such as Superman, and it was not met with a lot of critical acclaim, or the best reception from fans. Characters such as Superman and Batman will always be fan favorites, but older audiences (i.e. parents) are tougher to break into.

In order to even come close to mirroring the numbers of The Avengers, the JLA movie needs to modernize itself. 

The characters in The Avengers are played by actors that we know, for the most part: RDJ (hell-O), Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans. 

Stop! In the name of love.

Spider-Man was an Avenger at one point, so if they choose to include him in the next movie, that would be one more face that kids would know, since after The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield should expect his career to explode.

With the exception of Christian Bale, who may not even continue in the role of Batman, the JLA movie will have to completely rely on new faces and cast a lot of well-known actors. Considering they can't get any Wonder Woman projects off the ground, this may be more difficult than we think (I still say the dog would be great). I'd also like to see how the new Superman movie does- if that backfires, they'll have to retool that role as well. 

The characters in the Avengers are also fairly familiar, even to children- the faces of Iron Man, Captain America, and the like, even without their stand-alone franchises, have been popular for decades. Spider-Man, an original Avenger, should fit in well with the mix, if they go that route.

Those in the JLA- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and Martian Manhunter, have been rendered less recognizable over the last few decades. With the exception of Superman and Batman, who are and always will be classic and beloved icons to children, their parents and the fanboy/girl universe, the characters have to re-establish themselves. Wonder Woman, arguably the most popular of the remaining four, strongly appeals to women, but not so much to a general male populace. Not only that, but her character generally can’t seem to find its footing in modern pop culture.

Aquaman and The Flash haven’t had any solo projects (unless you count the parody in Entourage, which the under-12 set hopefully didn’t watch), and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone, besides your average Comic Con attendee, who has heard of Martian Manhunter. (I totally don't count, because I'm a loser) DC has chosen to rectify this by churning out a ton of movies based on their entire lexicon; however, characters such as The Flash and Lobo (who most likely won’t appear in the JLA movie, unless he's the villain) are not generally well known with audiences.

Yikes.

Marvel also did itself a huge service by hiring Joss Whedon- a god within the sci-fi community- to direct The Avengers and pen the screenplay, which is basically a no-fail way to get asses in seats. Personally I think everything Whedon's ever put out is pretentious and annoying- save for Cabin in the Woods and Buffy, which is one of the most genius television shows ever created- but even I have to admit that this film is pretty amazing.

Warner Bros. has apparently hired Will Beall to write the JLA film- he’s in good standing with the studio, having already tried his hand at Gangster Squad and both the Logan’s Run and Lethal Weapon remakes- but none of those have been released yet, so there are no numbers as to anything with his name on it. These four movies will be Beall's first major studio releases, and this is a huge gamble on the studio’s part.

I'll be at two of those, of course, because my husband is in them. Early stills of Gangster Squad feature him with a dog, and also beating some guy over the head with a tire iron. It's like Drive, in the '40's, with puppies! I'll be in my room. Alone.

This one actually kind of turns me on the most.
Does that make me a sociopath?

Not to mention that The Avengers has already made over a billion dollars worldwide, and it has only been in theaters for a month and a half. That’s one tough record to break.

The point here is that while I'm sure the Justice League movie will perform successfully, at least worldwide, there is no way in Hell it's coming close to The Avengers' box office. DC needs to re-familiarize themselves with a younger audience with shorter attention spans, build a more solid franchise and have a stronger box office draw with a larger family of characters.


Also, puppies! Get on that, DC!