Batman v Superman will fight with Captain America and X-Men to win the superhero box office war
IRON MAN, Thor and Captain America made Marvel absurdly dominant at the cinema, but Batman vs Superman is about to escalate the superhero war.
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WHEN Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice opens later this month, there will be a whole lot more at stake than just two of the world’s best loved superheroes going head to head.
Whatever the onscreen outcome of the Dark Knight facing off with the Man Of Steel (and you don’t have to be Brainiac to guess they’re going to end up on the same side), the main game will be how the much anticipated crossover resonates with audiences — and at the box office.
The $280 million blockbuster will be the first serious attempt to create a rival to the Disney owned Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film juggernaut that introduced the wider world to superheroes such as Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, and has so far grossed more than $12.7 billion over 12 interconnected films so far.
Rival studio Warner Bros is hoping to have similar success with their expanded franchise aligned with comic book powerhouse DC, which features not only Batman and Superman, but also Wonder Woman, Aquaman and The Flash, all of whom will appear in the coming crossover film, before starring in their own solo outings.
The stakes are high — ever since Christopher Reeves’ Superman hit box office pay dirt in 1978, and Tim Burton’s Batman a decade later, superheroes on the big screen have been big business. The X-Men ushered in the new millennium with a hit franchise that continues to this day, and Christian Bale rescued the Caped Crusader (last seen in George Clooney’s nippled Batsuit) in Christopher Nolan’s masterful Dark Knight trilogy — but it wasn’t until Robert Downey Jr’s surprise smash Iron Man kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 that super powers took super profits to new heights. Under the guidance of producer Kevin Feige, the Marvel heroes were introduced one by one, teased by after-credits scenes, with hit after hit, building to the all-star crossover The Avengers, which raked in more than $2 billion in 2012.
Now into its third phase, having even made successes out of largely unknown characters such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man, Marvel is showing no signs of running out of ideas. Beginning with a third chapter of Captain America in April, there are a further 10 films due to be released in the next three years, including a two-part Avengers to be released a year apart in 2018 and 2019.
The so-called DC Extended Universe is also upping its game, with eight movies planned in the next four years. And not to be left behind, 20th Century Fox is working on its own expanded “X-Men Universe”. While X-Men: Apocalypse will bring to a close Bryan Singer’s prequel trilogy in May, there are plans for one last Wolverine outing for Hugh Jackman, as well as a solo Gambit movie for Channing Tatum.
And then there’s Deadpool. After crashing and burning with what looked like a sure-fire hit as Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds has turned an obscure, foul-mouthed, X-rated character into a bona fide smash. Now that’s a superhuman feat.
DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE — MARCH 24
With arguably the two best known superheroes in the world, this should be a walk up start. But it may well be the characters’ own movie history that counts against this super-hyped crossover. Christopher Nolan’s magnificent trilogy, with Christian Bale, is still fresh in audiences’ memories and for a whole new generation Bale IS Batman. The casting of Ben Affleck predictably sparked howls of outrage among the comic-book faithful but he and audiences may find comfort in the fact that Michael Keaton defied a similar reception to ace the part in Tim Burton’s still loved movies of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Conversely, Superman has proved anything but invulnerable on the big screen in recent years. 2006’s muddled Superman Returns failed to take flight sufficiently to warrant a franchise. The 2013 reboot Man Of Steel made $668 million — not exactly box office kryptonite — but it’s worth noting that the lesser known Guardians Of the Galaxy raked in $773 million more a year later. Batman V Superman will be a direct sequel to Man Of Steel, with Henry Cavill once again donning the blue tights and Zack Snyder again directing, but is unrelated to Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Jesse Eisenberg follows in the footsteps of Oscar-winners Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey to play criminal mastermind Lex Luthor while Wonder Woman, the 5000-year-old demigoddess daughter of Zeus, will be played by Gal Gadot of Fast and Furious fame. Also appearing — as what will become the Justice League — will be Cyborg, Aquaman and The Flash.
SUICIDE SQUAD — AUGUST 4
Set in the same world as Batman V Superman and featuring a cameo from Affleck, what the Suicide Squad lacks in name recognition, it more than makes up for in star power. In a megawatt cast of comic book villains assembled for hopelessly dangerous missions, Will Smith plays expert marksman Deadshot and Aussies Margot Robbie and Jai Courtney play Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang (the latter described his character as “a complete bogan”). But the toughest task goes to Oscar-winner Jared Leto, who follows Jack Nicholson and the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. Leto went so deep into character on and off set that when Smith was asked what he thought of his co-star he said: “I don’t know — I literally haven’t met him yet.”
STILL TO COME:
Wonder Woman — June 2017
Justice League Part One — November 2017
The Flash — March 2018
Aquaman — July 2018
Shazam — April 2019
Justice League Part Two — 2019
Cyborg — April 2020
Green Lantern Corps — June 2020
MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR — APRIL 28
Anthony Mackie — aka Falcon — says he thinks Marvel is kicking off Phase 3 with its best movie yet. “I believe every time you watch a Marvel movie, they get better and better,” he says. “They’ve figured out this ingenious way to really make it a universe — every movie carries over into the next movie, no matter who the lead character is”. Picking up from where The Avengers: Age Of Ultron left off, it also brings back most of its all-star cast, but this time split into two factions — Team Cap and Team Iron Man — over the issue of government supervision of superheroes. Co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo will also helm the two part Avengers Infinity war, so expect a bunch of clues as well as new characters destined for the own spin-off movies including Black Panther (Chadwick Bozeman) and a (yet-again) rebooted Spider-Man (Tom Holland).
DOCTOR STRANGE — OCTOBER 27
Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and, more recently Deadpool proved that superheroes don’t have to be household names to pack a punch. And while the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, might be a loved character among comic book geeks, he’s hardly mainstream. But if the cast (Oscar nominees galore in Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tilda Swinton) and the trippy premise (arrogant neurosurgeon loses the use of his hands and becomes a master of the mystic arts) are anything to go by, this could be another minor Marvel.
STILL TO COME
Guardians Of the Galaxy Vol 2 — May 2017
Spider-Man — July 2017
Thor: Ragnarok — November 2017
Black Panther — February 2018
Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 — May 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp — July 2018
Captain Marvel — March 2019
Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 — May 2019
Inhumans — July 2019
X-MEN UNIVERSE
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE — MAY 19
For all the recent dominance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s another Marvel comic property (owned by a rival movie studio) that has truly stood the test of time. Who knew that when a largely unknown comic book film, starring a largely unknown Hugh Jackman as one of a crew of mutants hit our screens in 2000, they’d be still cranking out hits eight films and 16 years later. X-Men Apocalypse is the third in Bryan Singer’s prequel trilogy and has the mutants facing their greatest foe yet in the form of Oscar Isaac’s ancient and hugely powerful title character. Says Singer: “Apocalypse ... is so different from any of the other X-Men foes.
Where traditionally in X-Men we’re always tackling issues of identity and Magneto as a villain and mutants versus humans … finally, at long last, we introduce a character whose politics are global. He does not distinguish between mutants and humans, only between strong and weak. He to me is sort of the God of the Old Testament.” Familiar characters from the original trilogy will be back — but as younger versions, with Game Of Thrones’ Sophie Turner as Jean Grey and Alexandra Schipp as Storm. While Jennifer Lawrence says this is the last time she will endure the blue body suit as the shapeshifting Mystique, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender say they are open to returning as Professor X and Magneto.
DEADPOOL SEQUEL — undated.
Ryan Reynolds’ labour of love superhero has been the surprise hit of the year so far, and is set to sail towards $900 million at the box office this week from its meagre $80 million budget. With Reynolds reportedly collecting a $14 million payday, a sequel is inevitable — but the big question is how to fit the self-aware, piss-taking Deadpool into the wider X-Men world. Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick admit there are problems with timelines and continuity but live in hope, telling Indiewire: “Maybe we’ll see more X-Men playing in Deadpool’s sandbox and probably Deadpool playing in their sandbox at some point.”
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