James Gunn Rejects Idea That 'Superman' Needs To Be A Homerun Success For The DC Universe To Continue, Confirms It Needs To Cover Its Costs
Director James Gunn rejected the idea that his upcoming Superman film needs to be a homerun success in order for his planned DC Universe to continue.
In an interview about the upcoming film with Rolling Stone, Gunn was asked, “There are people who’ve been saying the whole future of the studio might be riding on this movie. How do you work in the face of that kind of pressure?”
Gunn responded, “Really, I just go, ‘That’s their business.’ Because that’s not the truth for me. My truth is this is the first movie out of DC Studios. Other people may say, ‘It’s gotta be a home run, nothing else.’ I’m like, ‘No, I’d be very happy with a double.’”
Next, he brought up Marvel Studios’ Iron Man, “F***king Iron Man wasn’t the be-all and end-all. It wasn’t Avatar. We are doing something that’s a piece of the puzzle. It’s not the puzzle itself.”
To that point, he shared, “We have Peacemaker, we have Supergirl, and what we want to do is make a movie that people love, they feel connected to the characters. It’s just this one movie. It’s not everything.”
Gunn then noted that the benchmark for him is breaking even with the film, “I hate it when there’s a f***ing article and it’s going on about all the problems and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and ‘that means even more pressure on James Gunn and Superman.’ I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m not responsible for all that. I’m responsible for my piece of the pie. I’ve gotta make my budget back. I’ll be very happy with that.’”
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The film reportedly has a budget of $225 million according to Umberto Gonzalez at TheWrap. Furthermore, he claims the film “needs to cross the $700 million threshold at the global box office to be considered a success, according to a top talent agent.”
Based on current projections it is likely the film will hit that mark. Box Office Theory’s Shawn Robbins projects the film will bring in between $154 million and $185 million in its opening weekend with a pinpoint projection of $175 million. Additionally, he projects the film will have a total domestic gross between $392 million and $510 million. His pinpoint projection is $477 million.
For comparison, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel film in 2013 had an opening weekend of $128.6 million. It went on to gross $291 million domestically. It added another $376.9 million internationally for a global gross of $667.9 million.
If Gunn’s Superman has a similar domestic to international ratio, the film is likely to gross around $850 million globally. However, that is still lower than Snyder’s Man of Steel if you factor in inflation. With inflation, Man of Steel’s global gross is around $919.8 million. That means Gunn’s film would gross 7.5% less than Man of Steel.
Man of Steel had a reported production budget of $225 million as well.
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While Gunn is downplaying the idea that the continuation of the DC Universe is reliant on the success of Superman, the reality is that the previous DCEU might have continued on after Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, it was in reality a walking corpse. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice failed to capture the imaginations of the moviegoing public and Justice League made it that the majority were not interested in further exploring that universe.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice grossed $872.3 million globally back in 2016, but just a year later Justice League only did $655.9 million. That’s a decline of 24.8%. By the time The Flash arrived in 2013, it only grossed $271.4 million. That’s a decline of nearly 70% from Superman: Dawn of Justice.
A similar trend manifested with Lucasfilm’s Star Wars. The Force Awakens had a monster box office in 2015 grossing $2.06 billion globally. While there were serious criticisms of the film, many held out hope that the sequel would deliver. It did not. The Last Jedi’s global box office gross declined to $1.3 billion in 2017. Then what many would have expected to be another easy $1 billion movie in Solo: A Star Wars Story only grossed $393.1 million becoming the first official Star Wars movie to lose money at the box office. The entire franchise is now a walking corpse with its most recent TV shows in The Acolyte and Andor getting canceled.
So while there might be more TV shows and films made after Superman whether or not the franchise takes off is likely riding on his Superman film whether he wants to admit it or not.
What do you make of Gunn’s comments?
This SUPERMAN film gives me the "SUPERMAN RETURNS" vibes. It was an OK film but despite what critics say I felt that MAN OF STEEL was far superior and aside from Reeves SUPEMRAN 2 is the best superman movie to date.
Sounds to me like Gunn has Iron-Man envy; wishing he could make something as epic as Jon Favreau. Don't get me wrong, Gunn can make a great film but he seems to be genre locked where as Jon Favreau is not;