DC Movies Are Still a Thing...

Marvel has 2-3 movie son the schedule per year between now and 2024, they just haven't announced what they are yet, even if some release dates have been confirmed, so we don't know if/when a female led movie or minority led movie will happen. With the rumored Civil War twist, we could see Falcon as Cap in Cap 4 for all we know...

As for the DC announcements...I'm kind of meh. Goyer's foot in mouth syndrome and lack of respect for the characters and consumers he works with has led me to decide I will not financially support any of the films he is involved with by buying a ticket, buying a DVD/Blue-Ray or paying for a rental, so until they are on a channel I already get on the TV I won't see any of them. I haven't been a fan of any of the DC castings so far, and nothing I have seen form anyone involved has given any indication these will be anything less than grimdark orgies of bleakness like the Nolan Bat and Super-films. The follow up tweet saying there will be more standalone Bat and Super films in the timespan of these releases that were not announced, says to me those solo films will be the tentpoles of the franchise, and will be saved to rescue revenue if/when one of the other films underperforms.

WB is putting a lot of eggs in one basket. They are reducing their total workforce by about 10% to trim their operating budget, but none of the cuts are coming from movie or television production areas. DC Entertainment just got consolidated in the move to Burbank and a lot of positions vacated in he move will be left vacant/eliminated to comply with those cuts as they are rumored to be about 10% of the DC staff. More cuts will come to publishing and other areas in the WB kingdom though id the two largest area (film & tv production) are not being cut and a total of 10% of the workforce in being laid off, because that's the way the law of average work.
If any of these movies seriously underperforms WB will be in the hot seat and DC Entertainment will suddenly be in the crosshairs for it. Man of Steel did well, but not as well as the bean counters were expecting. They wanted Iron Man 3 box office, and they didn't get it. So one wonders what the expectations they have for the box office of these films, and if it is possible for them to meet WB expectation even if they are big sellers-will they be big enough? They managed to fend off Rupert Murdoch recently, but if these films underperform and so many of their eggs are in the film basket, one wonders if that will leave them vulnerable to be gobbled up by a different media giant with different agendas.

The timing of the announcement is curious too. Not at SDCC, not at NYCC which just ended, but the Wednesday afterwards and 6 years in advance of the last of the films. Obviously they wanted to maximize coverage of this, but you would think NYCC would have all the media gathered to achieve just that, unless they were afraid they would lose the battle for the buzz because no one would be excited for it? Why 6 years in advance? Are they insecure because Marvel has a leg up on them and feel they have to prove they have a plan too? A lot can happen in pre-production to schedules, casting, screenplays, etc. etc. It will be far too easy for something to go wrong and wind up with DC disappointing fans before some of those films get made/released. There's a lot behind the curtain of the nature and timing of this announcement, and for me, it doesn't read well.

Also of note-no Del Toro JLD type film on the docket, so we can write that off for at least 6 years too, and that was the only rumored DC film project I was actualyl looking forward to. Ah well.

-M