Behind the box office fiasco of The Flash: the shattered DC Cinematic Universe

Zhang Jingchao, a reporter of this newspaper, reported from Beijing

"The Flash" may be the most "miserable" movie in June 2023. According to foreign media reports, the film cost nearly $300 million. But two weeks after its release, the global box office still failed to exceed $300 million; In Chinese mainland, its box office is only 176 million yuan, and the proportion of films has fallen to less than 5%. According to the industry law of "box office greater than or equal to three times the cost to return the cost", "The Flash" can be described as a fiasco.

The reason for the dismal box office of "The Flash" is not the quality of the film's content. In fact, whether it is domestic Douban or foreign IMDb, the score given is more than 7 points, indicating that this is a relatively superior work.

The reporter of "China Business News" checked a large number of DC (Detective Comics) movie information, and interviewed a number of theater people, and learned the following reasons: First, "The Flash", as a second-tier character in DC, itself lacks the influence of first-line characters such as "Superman" and "Batman"; Second, "The Flash" as a work in the DC Cinematic Universe planned ten years ago, but as the actual controller of DC Pictures, Warner Bros. has failed to create the DC Cinematic Universe, especially the instability of the main creative team has confused the style of the work and even the plot logic; Third, compared with another superhero (hereinafter referred to as "superhero") IP Marvel, DC has produced less in the past decade, and it is difficult to form stickiness for many fans, DC fans and the majority of passers-by; Fourth, it has been rumored that Warner Bros. will restart the DC Cinematic Universe after "The Flash" before the release of the film, so the label that the film has no strong plot connection with the rebooted DC Cinematic Universe is left in the hearts of some audiences; Fifth, Ezra Miller, the actor of the role of the film "The Flash", was constantly exposed before the release of the film by violent attacks, burglaries and other scandals that affected the box office performance; Sixth, superhero (hereinafter referred to as "superhero") movies are entering a period of decline caused by aesthetic fatigue; Seventh, in the summer when "The Flash" was released, the number of films with strong competitiveness is large and the release is dense, and the pressure of competition is greater.

Want to find a different way outside of Marvel

For the box office failure of "The Flash", the DC Cinematic Universe has to be mentioned.

DC and Marvel are the two major comic book giants in the United States, and both have created their own superhero systems, such as "Superman", "Batman", "Wonder Woman", "Joker", "The Flash" and other character IPs are from DC. In 1969, DC was acquired by Warner Bros.

Public information shows that in the competition with Marvel, DC has the upper hand most of the time, especially Marvel had to sell its well-known IPs such as "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" to 20th Century Fox and Sony in order to survive in the last century. In 2008, Marvel bet its "net worth and life" on the second-tier character "Iron Man", and launched the latter's single movie, which was finally a big success. But this also reflects Marvel's previous predicament from the side.

DC, by contrast, has no worries. Also in 2008, the second part of the "Batman Trilogy" "Batman: The Dark Knight" directed by Christopher Nolan was released, which was highly praised in business and artistry, and also pushed the "Joker" that was not as popular as the "Batman" IP into the spotlight, and the halo once exceeded the real protagonist.

But the tide soon reversed. Marvel struck while the iron was hot in 2010 and arranged a sequel with quality and quantity, followed by "Thor" and "Captain America" in 2011. In 2012, Marvel launched "The Avengers", which brought heroes closer together, and won a global box office of $1.5 billion. Since then, Marvel's superhero movies have hardly missed the big screen for any year.

Against this backdrop, the DC Cinematic Universe began to rush to the horse. In order to highlight the characteristics of relaxed entertainment different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warner Bros. chose the path of combining the author's artistic style and business, and let Zack Schneider, the director of "Three Hundred Spartan Warriors", be in charge of the original DC Cinematic Universe, hoping that the latter would become Warner Bros.'s "Kevin Feige" (Kevin Feige is the president of Marvel Studios and single-handedly planned the Marvel Cinematic Universe). In addition, the reporter also noted that in the original "Superman: Man of Steel" and "Batman v Superman" and several other films, Christopher Nolan also served as a producer. A number of industry insiders told reporters that in Hollywood, the producer's voice is often higher than the director's, especially the annual Oscar awards also give out the "Best Producer Award".

The first few films chose the most influential superhero IPs "Superman" and "Batman" in North America, and the main creative team favored directors with successful experience and more familiarity, it can be seen that Warner Bros. at that time was more cautious about opening the DC Cinematic Universe.

And the DC Cinematic Universe has been controversial since the first part. Zack Schneider in "Superman: Man of Steel" 中️ shows a more serious and value discussion style, the film has a score of 7.3 and 7.0 on Douban and IMDb, respectively, but this style is difficult to get the love of most passers-by audiences, coupled with the film's nearly two and a half hours of length, it is difficult to get more films in theaters, and the final cost of $280 million only won $680 million at the box office.

In the following "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", the dark, serious style continued, although professional film critics had a good reputation, and the $250 million investment eventually exchanged for $873 million at the box office, and the return on investment ratio improved, but it did not reach Warner Bros.'s previous goal of $1 billion. The rift between the main creative team represented by Zack Schneider and the Warner Bros. senior management has since appeared, and it has grown larger and larger in the days to come, and eventually parted ways.

Neither "Marvel" nor "DC"

DC was known for its suspenseful and serious style at the beginning of its birth, especially in the role of "Batman". This is also the most prominent feature of superheroes under the DC system compared to Marvel.

But on the big screen in recent years, Marvel superhero movies highlight the characteristics of lightness, entertainment, funny, excitement, and fast pace, and are more popular with audiences, attracting many passers-by in the past ten years.

"Most audiences come to the cinema to relax, to be cool. If you pay attention to hints and details everywhere, and the tone of the picture is still dark, it may be a little 'tiring' for many viewers. Especially among these audiences, there are many who do not know DC, and even think that Iron Man and Batman are superheroes under one system. Another point is that Zack Schneider's films are very long, which makes it very difficult for theaters to arrange films, on the one hand, theaters can't schedule several films a day, on the other hand, how many audiences want to drip water before watching the movie, holding their bladder when watching the movie. A person from a domestic theater company told reporters, "It can't be said that Zack Schneider's choice is wrong, because his works are actually not low-rated, but this path is indeed more difficult than Marvel's choice." ”

But Warner Bros. clearly values commercial returns. In Warner Bros.'s 2010~2022 financial report, the reporter has repeatedly seen Warner Bros. emphasize: "Our goal is to build viewership, optimize distribution revenue, obtain advertising sales, and create or reposition brand channels and businesses by investing in content for our network to enable these channels and businesses to maintain long-term growth and occupy the content market with strong consumer appeal." ”

So in the key "Justice League", Warner Bros. changed the full decentralization of Zack Schneider in the past and adopted Hollywood's more traditional "producer intervention" method. According to multiple foreign media reports, Warner Bros. appointed two producers to supervise Zack Schneider in order to avoid the film from falling into a dark, serious style again, and ordered the final cut of the film to be within two hours.

But a two-hour movie has to explain the plot of six superheroes, especially the three characters of "Aquaman", "Steelbone" and "The Flash" were not independent movies at that time, which greatly increased the difficulty of editing.

According to a number of foreign media reports and Zack Schneider's content revealed in the interview program, Zack Schneider has had many negotiations with Warner Bros., the former has constantly compromised, the film has been reduced from the initial 5 hours to 3.5 hours, and then reduced to 3 hours, but still failed to satisfy the producer. Finally, in May 2017, Zack Schneider resigned from his position on the DC project.

Warner Bros. recruited Whedon from Marvel for reshoot and editing, but the final "Justice League" Douban and IMDb scores were 6.3, and the film with an investment of more than $300 million had a box office of only $657 million.

But the turmoil did not end with the departure of Zack Schneider. After that, the actors of characters such as "Steelbone" and "Wonder Woman" said in interview shows that it was not pleasant to cooperate with Weedon, and many people in the main creative team also left one after another. At the same time, because Zack Schneider also planned other works in the DC Cinematic Universe before, but after his departure, Warner Bros. did not give a new plan and clear positioning, and Warner Bros. senior management changed, and the relevant creative team also frequently flowed, so such as "Suicide Squad", "Birds of Prey and Halle Quinn" and other DC Cinematic Universe works have problems similar to the theatrical version of "Justice League": stylistically, I want to abandon darkness and seriousness, but I haven't completely abandoned, But it's not exactly the tone of Marvel's lighthearted entertainment. In June 2023, when "The Flash" was released, it had been 6 years since Zack Schneider left, but a lot of Zack Schneider's settings were still retained in the narrative, action and other aspects of "The Flash".

10 years later, the "twilight years" of the Premier League

The time comes to 2023, exactly ten years after the DC Cinematic Universe launched its first work, Superman: Man of Steel. Standing at this point of ten years, superhero-themed movies and the DC movie universe have changed.

From the DC Cinematic Universe, in the Zack Schneider era, the actors of "Superman" and "Batman" have announced their withdrawal. In 2022, Warner Bros. officially finalized that James Gunn, the director who directed the "Guardians of the Galaxy" series and "Thor 3" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will be at the helm of the DC Cinematic Universe, and the DC Cinematic Universe will officially restart after "The Flash".

However, the box office appeal of superhero-themed movies in the market at this time can no longer be compared with before 2020, which can be seen from the box office performance and word of mouth of many of Marvel's works in 2021~2023.

After the release of "Avengers 4" and "Spider-Man 2: Far From Home" in 2019, the Marvel Cinematic Universe entered the fourth phase, and the movies in this stage began with "Black Widow" in 2021 to "Ant-Man 3: Quantum Frenzy" in 2023, in terms of box office performance, except for "Spider-Man 3", no movie exceeded $1 billion, in terms of word of mouth, except for "Spider-Man 3", the IMDb and Douban scores of the rest of the works are around 6 points, Individual popular films have also seen obvious word-of-mouth differentiation in China and overseas.

"In fact, in the past few years, superhero movies have shown a certain degree of weakness, such as Marvel's many works in the fourth phase have a poor reputation, but DC has not been able to take advantage of this opportunity to catch up. Secondly, a large part of the success of the previous Marvel Universe is due to its producer system, under which the effect of the film can be avoided due to different directors. But this mode also makes the plot routines and style patterns of each movie similar, and the audience is prone to aesthetic fatigue. The above-mentioned theater source told reporters, "In the past, superhero movies, especially Marvel movies, were better than plot content and special effects, but in the past four years, their storytelling ability has regressed to a certain extent." At the same time, the Chinese film industry is also progressing, for example, "The Wandering Earth 2" released in the Spring Festival in 2023 actually proves that China's film special effects production also has a certain degree of competitiveness. On the whole, the advantage generation gap of Marvel movies and even Hollywood has shrunk. ”