14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, Warner Bros. blinked in the longstanding Marvel face-off and announced that it would not release “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” on May 6, 2016 after all, thus leaving the spot open for Marvel “Captain America 3.” “Dawn of Justice” was moved to March 25, 2016.
Because both movie studios had previously said neither had any intention of changing the release date, it was widely assumed that whoever did it first would be the one to chicken out. Headlines ran accordingly when Warners turned out to be it.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.’ President of Domestic Distribution, explains why the entire world got it wrong: the decision wasn’t them chickening out, it was them outsmarting Marvel.
In leaving the May 6 release date for Marvel, Warners was able to move up in the yearly release schedule and literally get a head start on its direct rival. We’ve been looking at the situation from the wrong angle, it seems.
“The reality now is there really isn’t a bad week to open a movie,” Fellman says. “If you look at the summer box office this year, you can see that there were so many movies, one after the other. You can start with Spider-Man, two weeks later Godzilla, and then Maleficent, and then Edge of Tomorrow, and then Jump Street and Transformers.”
“And the one thing they all had in common, not one of them did over $250 million [€186.4 million]. We’ll be the first one up [in 2016], which is very important, and we’ll have six weeks before Captain America comes in,” Fellman continues.
In these six weeks, “Dawn of Justice” can make a killing at the box office, which is also guaranteed by the fact that it will be the first superhero movie of the year. “Captain America 3” is also expected to do well, as is customary with all Marvel movies, but it has now lost this advantage of being the opener of the blockbuster season, Fellman seems to be saying.
Marvel got sucker-punched.
Also this week, Warners announced the release date of 9 other DC-related films, in addition to “Batman V. Superman.” He’s now saying that the titles will be revealed later this month and that, “while it hasn’t been officially announced... it’s a pretty good bet” that the “Justice League” film will come out right after “Batman V. Superman.”
Zack Snyder directed last year’s “Man of Steel” and is now working on “Batman V. Superman.” He is believed to have already agreed to helm “Justice League” as well, which would make it logical that this be the next Warners release, because, this way, they would shoot back to back.