The Four Color Media Monitor

While it's no surprise if James Gunn's new Superman film took plenty of dough in its first weekend, Movieweb says the box office results may not be as spectacular as WB's hoping for

Superman has taken the box office and DCU fans by storm, grossing $250 million worldwide since its release on July 11. David Corenswet's new iteration of the Man of Steel is a hit with fans and critics, as the film holds an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score with a 93% audience rating. But, while the figures suggest that Superman has been a runaway success, a closer look at the figures suggests a worrying trend for the DCU's future, and a new report has confirmed that Superman wasn't the blockbuster sensation that Warners and DC Studios initially expected.

A new report from Variety has revealed Warner Bros.' reaction to Superman's international box office performance. While the film has kicked up a storm on US shores, it may have found its kryptonite abroad. Of its staggering $250 million take (so far), $155 million of that comes from the US, leaving $95 million from international markets. That's not a bad performance for most movies. But, Warners needs Superman to be better than most movies if it is to act as the foundation for the future of the DCU. According to the report, Warner Bros' general reaction to Superman's box office take was, "Good enough." Although, one box office pundit summed up the reaction to Supes' international take:

"For Superman to be one of the biggest summer blockbusters — not to mention reset an entire universe — the film needed to pack more punch in its debut. Obviously, the following weeks will tell the true box office tale, but this has to be viewed as a slightly underwhelming start for DC and WB"

Yet so far, they're making an effort to advance production of a new Supergirl movie, and even Wonder Woman movie. The domestic box office may have been high, but globally, it didn't do as well, and maybe the political metaphors made foreign audiences more discouraged than local? Those are queries the MSM predictably won't explore.

Now, since we're still on the topic, CBS News interviewed Gunn, and he told them something that sounds pretty cheap and laughable, but hardly surprising:

"As a child, the reason I liked Batman better than Superman was because Superman was just too strong at times," Gunn explained. "I think that this is, we're building a whole universe of characters and I didn't want to have one guy who was so much stronger than anybody else that, you know, a guy with a bow and arrow didn't matter."

This is so superficial, it's enough to fall over laughing. While this could almost be said about the Golden Age origins (there were sci-fi villains turning up even then), it throughly ignores that by the 1950s, writers were trying to come up with more science-fantasy adversaries and other challenges. So how did it all get to a point where any and all sci-fi ingredients were ignored or obscured? That's the takeaway you could get from this. Gunn's defense for how he may have approached everything even ignores that in the Silver Age, it was established Superman was vulnerable to magic energies, so once again, we have a case of practically every so-called expert on Superman sweeping food for thought under the rug for the sake of a superficial view of how the Man of Steel came to be. It's practically insulting to the memory of Siegel, Shuster, and just about every writer from those times who developed later ideas how to offer challenges Superman could try to overcome.

Gunn also dove into Superman's relationship with Lois Lane, played by Rachel Brosnahan, saying Lane was more cynical and less idealistic than Superman.

"Lois is a journalist to her core and … what's her high key value? It's truth. What's Superman's key value? It's life. … Those are two really important things, but they aren't always, you know, they don't always go together so well," he said.

Neither does his lecture. Truth and life can go together. What can't is when the story involves the kind of leftist propaganda the film's screenplay incorporates.

Gunn also delved into Superman's status as an immigrant, its impact and the importance of kindness.

"For me, the center of it was about kindness in a world that isn't kind. There's no doubt that this story was created by the children of immigrants by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938."

He used an example from the film where Superman shows compassion for the character, Lex Luthor, comparing it to everyday life, "No matter what our beliefs are, if Superman can show Lex Luthor kindness, the guy who wants nothing more than to kill him, why can't we do it to a neighbor who has a different set of political beliefs than we do."

Good grief, even this reeks of absurd liberal ideology. After all, for many years Luthor was depicted in the comics as not changing his negative view of the Big Blue Boy Scout, and often plotting ways to kill Superman, even if Luthor's plots were ultimately foiled. Of course, if there were a story written where Luthor murdered other innocent people less fortunate than Superman, should Supes be depicted showing kindness to Luthor then? I seem to recall the film screenplay involves a part where Luthor banishes some ex-girlfriends into an alternate dimension or pocket universe, and if it's a hellhole in there, why must Superman be depicted going easy on Luthor then? Also note how Gunn perpetuates the whole "immigrant" angle, and obscures the more sensible description, "refugee".

I'm not surprised the film could've taken in as much dough as it's said to have accumulated so far. But, if the end result at the box office is underwhelming, I'm not going to feel sorry, considering what kind of repellent metaphors it appears to be built upon. Such political allegories only ruin what could've been a potentially entertaining production, and I don't see why I should waste time at the auditorium over this mishmash. What really worries me now is what kind of embarrassingly bad storylines the upcoming Supergirl film could end up being built upon, if it draws from Tom King's writings, and even a new Wonder Woman film could suffer similar humilation. It's bad enough Superman has to suffer from wokeness. The most prominent ladies of the DCU should not have to be subject to anything similar.

Labels: dc comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, sales, Supergirl, Superman, women of dc, Wonder Woman