What’s at Stake for Batman V. Superman? The Universe

Batman V. Superman could change the course of an entire movie universe: its success will mean a decade of DC comic book movies centered around the iconic characters of the Justice League; its failure will mean catastrophe for Warner Bros. entertainment who hoped to turn its success into billions upon billions of dollars.

Based on feedback so far, all signs point to the former: Batman V. Superman appears to be moving toward colossal triumph.

It has a lot riding on it.

Marvel Studios chose to build their cinematic universe organically (as no one had ever conceived of a cinematic universe before.) They released Iron Man. It was both critically and financially successful. The Incredible Hulk was not nearly as successful, but both were successful enough that Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and The Avengers were greenlit.

So began the idea of an interconnected movie universe, the brainchild of Marvel’s current studio head, Kevin Feige.

DC has taken a different approach.

In 2013, the company released Man of Steel, the first entry in their rebooted DC universe. It was generally considered an okay film, (though some critics lambasted it for its controversial ending), and yielded a decent box office, at $668 million. Not a spectacular total for a modern day superhero movie, but by no means a failure.

DC instead decided they would rely on the iconic nature of their characters and launch its universe all at once; thus emerged Batman V. Superman. It would feature its most famous heroes Batman and Superman but also Wonder Woman in a strong supporting role, and potential cameos by Cyborg, Aquaman, and The Flash.

It’s potentially a gamble: if Batman V. Superman doesn’t succeed, can they build a universe out of failure?

And what do they consider success? It says here that if the film makes less than $1 billion, it will be considered a failure. Both of Batman’s last solo outings (The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight rises) each grossed more than that, so with the epic expectations on Batman V. Superman $1 billion is the very least it should earn.

Superb Signals

[img via collider.com]

The early buzz is overwhelmingly positive. Twitter has exploded with glowing reviews.

People are raving about Ben Affleck as Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

Full disclosure: I enjoyed Man of Steel, but when Zack Snyder was announced as the architect of the DC Extended Universe, I was skeptical. He’s good…but is he a visionary?

I can’t wait to find out!

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Once our review is posted, you’ll find a link here!

Feature image via superherohype.com