Is Greed Good?: Marvel’s MO, DC’s Justice League: Strategies and Money

DC Entertainment and Marvel Entertainment are two companies at the forefront of high-end box office success due to their plethora of indelible characters given life in the colorful pages of comic books. In recent years, Marvel Entertainment has far exceeded the success of DC Entertainment by getting its films written, made, starring A-listers, and into the hands of fans, all while interconnecting them in the same universe.

This success and the modus operandi employed has not been lost on DC Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros. With the uber amount of cash The Avengers has brought in, a Justice League film has been pushed forward and green-lit. Here is the problem with that: its been pushed forward because it can earn money based on what The Avengers brought in, not because there is a long-term plan ending in a Justice League movie (what Marvel did with The Avengers). Greed is the Justice League film’s precipitating factor, not the fact they have a great script for the film and want to get it on screen as quickly as possible.

If The Avengers had tanked or been a ok success, there would be no Justice League movie on the slate right now nor would there be a feeding frenzy to get Marvel sequels (Iron Man 3, Captain America 2, Thor 2) made (in addition to Guardians of the Galaxy making its debut) and other comic book films developed.

DC Entertainment has The Dark Knight Rises about to enter theaters but then that is it for Batman on screen for a long time. No one will be interested in seeing a new incarnation of Batman or The Joker for the immediate future, say ten years or so. “[Christopher Nolan] also doesn’t plan to produce [the Warner Bros. film group President Jeff Robinov]’s hoped-for Batman reboot” or even touch Justice League in any way, shape, or form.

A Justice League photo:

Justice League

After The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel land,

According to sources, [they]’ll likely be the only DC movie[s] for upwards of three years as the company tries to line everything up. Warner Bros. film group President Jeff Robinov revealed, “”My hope is that over the next month or so we’ll be ready to lay out the plan for the next DC movies” and they’re already doing that in video games, comics and more.

DC Entertainment is not down-trodden however. Believe it or not, DC Entertainment is theoretically in a better position than Marvel Entertainment is.

DC has struggled to find the same success on the big screen as its Walt Disney Co.-owned rival Marvel Entertainment — despite having a better known collection of characters.

That collection of better known characters is still within DC Entertainment’s hands. Most of the success Marvel Entertainment has enjoyed has been at the hands of second-tier characters and story arcs. They sold off the rights to many of their top-tier properties (Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc.) to companies like 20th Century Fox before Iron Man and the idea for an Avengers movie was sparked.

Speaking of Fantastic Four, a reboot has just been green-lit with Chronicle‘s director Josh Trank at the helm. The Fantastic Four will hit screens for Fox after The Wolverine and X-Men: First Class 2 are released in theaters. A Daredevil reboot is also in the works at Fox.

Hopefully they will be brought to the screen in the right incarnation and not like DC’s film version of Green Lantern and the recent TV version of Wonder Woman. DC Entertainment’s Green Lantern sucked (Green Lantern (2011): 8 Reasons Why this Superhero Movie Failed) and the new Wonder Woman  TV show (TV Review: Wonder Woman (2011), Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot) was a cheesey joke.

Nolan’s Batman movies have been [DC Entertainment’s] only hits of the past decade, surrounded by modest flops such as 2006’s “Superman Returns” and 2009’s “Watchmen” and such major money-losers as 2010’s”Jonah Hex” and last year’s “Green Lantern.”

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Perhaps the small screen is where DC Entertainment will begin to see success again. The new Arrow TV show looks better (Arrow TV Show Trailer 2) than Green Lantern and Wonder Woman combined. That small spark may start a fire, helping DC Entertainment to RISE. We will have to wait and see. Let’s hope DC Entertainment’s thirst for a $1.5 billion grossing superhero team movie does not cost the Warner Bros. appendage its integrity, its investment in the film, and most importantly, the movie going public’s time.

What are you thoughts on the upcoming Justice League film, DC Entertainment, and the slate of comic-book-to-film movies in the works?

Source: Slashfilm, Latimes