Superheroes

The final weekend figures are out, and The Nun just opened with $53.8 million over its debut weekend. This massive win, which also includes $77m in overseas grosses, follows on the heels of The Meg (which will cross $500m this week) and Crazy Rich Asians (which is taking a shot at the $175m+ domestic milestone and possible Oscar nominations). Unless Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s A Star Is Born doesn’t ride its wave of Oscar buzz to become a babysitter-worthy hit next month, the WB express should keep on chugging until Christmas. With numbers like these, it hardly matters if Aquaman “saves” the DC Films franchise.

The animated Small Foot may or may not break out at the end of the month. We’ll find out in November whether Fantastic Beasts is a one-time curiosity or something that folks will want to follow to the end of its reported five-film lifespan. However, the Dream Factory is having a solid year. They are mostly doing it without conventional sequels or franchise faire. Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One pulled $588 million worldwide and they pushed Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage to $426m worldwide on a $125m budget, making it the second-biggest video game adaptation ever. Even Teen Titans Go! To the Movies grossed $46m worldwide on a $10m budget.

Their comedy slate (Game Night, Ocean’s 8, Tag and Crazy Rich Asians) has been relatively solid, both commercially and critically. Yes, Tomb Raider underperformed in North America (but made $273 million worldwide on a $94m budget), Life of the Party was a slightly underwhelming Melissa McCarthy vehicle ($65m on a $30m budget) and Paddington 2 ($40m domestic) should have moved to a later date after it went from Weinstein to Warner at almost the last minute. But, barring a fluke with A Star Is Born and a whiff with Crimes of Grindelwald, WB has succeeded in making Aquaman almost irrelevant in terms of the studio’s big picture.




That’s not to say that Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. should cancel the DC Films franchise or any such nonsense. I’m optimistic for the Jason Momoa flick if only because I believe in James Wan, and Shazam looks like a nice balance between “lighter, more kid-friendly” while still taking place in the previously grimdark DC Films continuity. And yeah, I’m sure Wonder Woman 1984 will at least be a solid hit whether or not it breaks out as big as its predecessor. After that, whether or not Joker justifies itself, it’s an open question. But here’s the good news: WB no longer “needs” the DC Films franchise.

If the last several months are any indication, they are back where they were several years ago. As I wrote way back in early 2014, the studio had a big enough and diverse enough slate of movies that they didn’t need to bet the farm on a DC Comics-based cinematic universe. When Gravity is earning over $700 million worldwide and winning Oscars, We’re the Millers tops $150m domestic and Magic Mike is snagging a $39m debut weekend, then the notion of an expensive and time-consuming DC Films franchise being a do-or-die proposition is not only foolhardy but counterintuitive. But press ahead they did, to their overall detriment.

Whether it was because the success of The Avengers had Time Warner shareholders demanding their own superhero cinematic universe, or whether Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy kept explicit interconnectivity on the backburner until Marvel had already done their thing, Warner Bros. eventually went ahead and announced a slate of interconnected superhero movies in October of 2014. It has been a bumpy and complicated road, full of critical disappointments, relative smash hits and a deeply unpleasant media narrative painting the WB executives as the worst kind of reactionary micromanagers. As feared, the struggles over the DC Films flicks has colored everything else at the studio.

The rumors, speculations and misadventures concerning the production, release and reception of Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League came to define the studio. Never mind that Dunkirk became the biggest-grossing World War II movie of all time while snagging rave reviews and a number of Oscar nods. Never mind that American Sniper bagged a $107m Fri-Mon debut weekend and eventually topped $350m domestic. Never mind that six of last 13 live-action originals that have topped $450m worldwide were released domestically and/or overseas by Warner Bros. Justice League bombed and Suicide Squad was re-edited by a trailer company. WB was doomed, even while It topped $700m worldwide.

Here’s what the successes of Crazy Rich Asians, The Meg and The Nun have bought the studio: They can treat the DC Films franchise as just another IP among a number of would-be event movies. It can be no more or less important than Fantastic Beasts or their Godzilla/King Kong monster franchises, big movies that earned good reviews and didn’t remotely reek of executive micromanagement. They can make whichever of the 8,194 announced DC Films flicks currently in development as they so choose, with no more or less pressure than the decision to greenlight The Trench or Ocean’s 9. because they really do have a choice.

The DC Comics franchise should never have been treated, either by the studio or by the media, as an “all eggs in one basket” situation. And now, it’s almost impossible to look at WB’s 2018 slate and argue that Aquaman will be anything other than just another potential tentpole flick. That’s good for the studio, good for the industry and, I would argue, good for those who want good-to-great DC Comics movies. They can be both the folks who make DC Films movies and JK Rowling fantasies alongside The Nun, American Sniper and Magic Mike not because they have to be, but because they choose to be.

Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios has officially surpassed $4 billion in global box office receipts for 2018. Ant-Man and the Wasp finished up doing its small part this weekend, reaching $610.2M. That’s all Marvel needed, however, with Black Panther ($1.347B) and Avengers: Infinity War ($2.046B) doing the heavy lifting earlier this year.

This makes 2018 Marvel Studios’ biggest year at the box office, by a wide margin. The studio’s previous best was just under $2.6B last year. Marvel Studios’ three 2018 releases averaged an astonishing $1.33B per film, though that figure will go up a bit with Ant-Man and the Wasp still in theaters.

Marvel Studios can add this $4 billion mark to a long list of reasons to celebrate in 2018. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which was born with Iron Man in 2008. The entire year has been filled with various events celebrating the first ten years of Marvel movies, including a tenth-anniversary film festival in IMAX theaters last weekend. As much as fans have enjoyed looking back, it was Marvel Studios’ present that truly made 2018 a banner year.

Marvel Studios enjoyed their best domestic performance (and best solo movie performance worldwide) in Black Panther. Next came Avengers: Infinity War, which collected domestic and worldwide opening weekend records on its way to becoming Marvel Studios’ all-time global box office champ. Ant-Man and the Wasp may not have been a world-beater, but it showed solid growth for its own franchise after the first Ant-Man earned $519M three years ago.

$4 billion is a pretty good year for a major studio with a full slate of films. Reaching that mark with just three movies is ridiculous. I’m not sure what the exchange rate is between dollars and space units, but remember that 4 billion can get you an orb with the Power Stone in it.

Thanos may have collected a half dozen Infinity Stones, but he forgot about the Money Stone, which clearly belongs to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.