The Four Color Media Monitor

It may have looked like this movie was going to be a biggie at the box office despite the widespread critical pans. But now, as Forbes has just informed, it's taken a huge plunge, particularly in the USA:

Indeed, according to the figures I’ve compiled from Boxofficemojo.com, Batman v Superman has set a new record for the worst Friday-to-Sunday drop for a superhero movie release in modern North American box office history. In dropping 55% from its $82 million Friday debut to its $37 million gross on Sunday, it pummeled all prior records for weakness in theatrical staying power. It even beat the nearly universally reviled and now long-forgotten Fantastic Four reboot, which dropped a comparatively modest 48% across its opening weekend in the summer of 2015.

[...] The steep decline in the Batman v Superman numbers points to the unfortunate likelihood that, apart from DC Comics fans, North American audiences don’t like the movie very much. This is problematic for Warner Bros in two critically important ways. First, if the picture’s audience evaporates too quickly its chances for reaching profitability will be threatened. As a friend who is a key player in the Transformers franchise tells me, “These tent-pole action pictures don’t really make as much money as you’d think. The difference between the revenues and the expenses can be pretty slim.”

Well I wasn't sold on the obsessively dark leanings the filmmakers insist upon, all because they lack confidence in the ability of a brighter angle to sell well, as it did for a few of Marvel's offerings. No matter what anybody thinks of Batman or Superman killing criminals, one thing is clear: the movie's trying too hard to be "badass", and that must be hurting it in the long run. If such a direction were taken with Spider-Man and Iron Man, I'm sure that wouldn't go over well with audiences either. So if this movie's slipping at the box office now, we could probably guess why. Just like the people in charge of the comics, they're trying too hard to be "relevant", and that's only undermining their reputation.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, Fantastic Four, marvel comics, sales, Superman