Monday, March 28, 2016

BvsS Aftermath

I won't waste your time with another review of Batman vs Superman. I think if you google a bit, you'll find one or two reviews online. Instead, let's talk about some of the questions that have popped up since the movie came out this weekend.



1) If the production cost for the movie was $250 million, then why does Batman vs Superman need $800 million to break even? 

I suspect it's because Time Warner is using the movie's "marketing costs" to cover the debt of other bad projects.

2) Did Disney pay critics to make bad reviews of the movie?

There may have been a passive influence, but I think it's highly unlikely a full blown conspiracy was in the works.

3) Will the bad reviews cause Time Warner to take a different approach with the other movies?

Possibly. Check out this article where James Wan, the director of Aquaman states his movie will have a lighter tone.

4) Finally, will this movie start a backlash against Rotten Tomatoes?

Not likely. While people have accused the site of having reviews that seem to skew towards certain agendas, I think all will be forgiven by the time Civil War comes out, and fans will go back to using the RT scores to (wrongly) justify if a movie is good or not.

Anyway, feel free to use the comments section to add your own questions!

- Jim


14 comments:

Trey said...

Good points. If DC is paying for negative reviews, they're keeping it subtle. Despite the narrative that it's being savaged, the reviews are actually only mediocre. The raw score review average at Rotten Tomatoes is 5/10, similar to metacritics. That suggests somwhere around half are fair to good, and the other half are less so.

Likewise sites have been calling its CinemaScore rating of a B tepid, but no articles were written about the "poor" reception of 10 Cloverfield Lane (B-) and few about Hail Caesar! (C). It's the lazy media narrative here.

Trey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pierre Villeneuve said...

Hi guys,

1) I suspect BvS pulled an Amazing Spider-man 2.
Remember ASM2??
It needed to make about $750 Millions just to break even.
Why??
Because Sony spent almost as much advertising the film then they did on making the film itself.
Warner was very worried about BvS at some point.
So I would not be surprised if they pulled the same trick that Sony did with ASM2.
Which would explain the need for a $800 Millions just to break even.

Pierre Villeneuve said...

2) Although I did not see BvS yet.....
The consensesus seems to be that if you liked Man of Steel.... you will like BvS.
And if you did not like Man of Steel..... that sadly BvS is more of the same.

So If BvS truly is more of the same like Man of Steel..... it is very easy to understand the 30% on RottenTomatoes.

So I don't think Marvel needed to pay off critics for BvS to get a 30% score.

Pierre Villeneuve said...

Bad reviews by itself will not cause Warner to take a different approach.

Bad Reviews and underperforming at the Box Office is what would make Warner take a different approach.

We seem to have a repeat of Amazing Spider-man 2 here. Which if you remember killed Sony's plans for ASM3.... Sinister Six and Venom.

I don't think it will kill Warner's plans for Justice League.....
But odds are Warner will at least adjust their plans.

Friday alone.... the BvS made $85 Millions.
But it did $170 for the WHOLE week-end.
So about $40 to $45 Million each for Saturday and Sunday.
That is quite a drop from Friday.
Which will make this movie extremely front loaded.





Pierre Villeneuve said...

4) I agree with you.
Odds are Civil War will have good reviews.......
and fans will forget the low BvS score.

So far Civil War seems to be more like Winter Soldier.
But who knows???
What if it is a mess like Avengers 2??
But then even being a mess....... A2 still got 75% on RT.


Trey said...

@Pierre - It was Easter weekend, which I suspect had something to do with the dropoff Saturday and Sunday. We'll see as the weeks go on.

Pierre Villeneuve said...

BvS dropped 55% from Friday to Sunday. That is a record.
38% From Friday to Saturday.
And then 27% from Saturday to Sunday.

Easter was Sunday..... it could account for the drop from Saturday to Sunday...... but not the Friday to Saturday drop.

That is a HUGE drop in such a short time..... even for an Easter Week-end.
Even the INFAMOUS Fant4stic did not drop as much. (48%)


I guess we will know when we see how BIG the drop will be next Week-End.

P.S. I am not a robot. ;)

Pierre Villeneuve said...

Damm.... Actually the drop was 58.6%.

The Box Office numbers were adjusted from $170 Millions to $166 Millions.

Jim Shelley said...

Pierre! Welcome back my friend!

Yep, no doubt the bad reviews are gonna impact the movie's overall box office. The question I suppose that will haunt a lot of Time Warner head brass will be What If they had gone with a different director and lighter tone.

But here's the thing - Can you go with a lighter toned Batman? The Batman fans really like their world dark and gritty (it's really the only comic book where the complaint that it's too dark and gritty is never used.)

So, if Superman in this movie had been lighter (like Captain America in the Avengers movies) how would he have played off of this Batman? Probably pretty well actually.

Like you, I suspect the next weekend will be a significant drop off. How much will be hard to say (ie: will it be more than usual or on par for most second weekers.)

MattComix said...

You know, I can't do it. WB basically made a movie that has Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman in it that I have no real desire to go and actually see. I look back on my fandom as a kid and the idea that such a thing could happen would have been impossible. I don't know if that's me being fed up with hero vs. hero especially where Batman and Superman are concerned, my usual frustration with both companies but especially DC doubling down on grimdark, or it just being obvious from the trailers that it also doubles down on aspects of MOS that I didn't enjoy instead of dovetailing with ones that I did.

So I took the antidote instead and watched the SuperGirl/Flash team-up this week.

Pierre Villeneuve said...

Holy Crap!!!

BvS had a 69% drop.

Even the worst predictions predicted somewhere between 55% and 65%.

And there is no Easter week-end this week to explain that HUGE drop.

No wonder they just called some reshoots for Suicide Squad.

Jim Shelley said...

Yeah, I heard about the SS reshoots. That's a bit of a shame as that's a movie that would have been fine as a darker film. Still, it's completely understandable. I'm betting this movie goes down as some sort of object lesson for movie studios.

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