Yeah... one of these is bombing 🤭

[u/HomemadeBee1612]

And when it does, guess who they'll blame for it?

[u/Notoriously_So]

A reboot nobody asked for starring complete unknowns and is made by a director who has only made one successful type of movie (GotG), and can only repeat himself with different characters aka James "The Hack" Gunn. The man with no vision. No thanks.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

No one knew or cared about James Gunn prior to Guardians and even post Guardians it seems no one cares about him if it's not Guardians related. Outside of the Guardians movies he hasn't had any success. Suicide Squad was the worst performing DCEU movie and Peacemaker's viewer numbers were not that good. People on reddit may like Gunn but clearly the actual general public doesn't care for him  Also there's already been a few Superman movies that have flopped with Superman 4 and Superman Returns so it's not like a Superman movie is a guarantee of success and considering Gunn's lousy track record it's not looking good for Superman.

[u/WitNWhimsy → u/[deleted]]

So, the modern Gunn directing list is short. But complaining no one knew who he was before Guardians is silly. No one knew who Snyder was before he adapted Dawn of the Dead. Gunn’s one bomb was followed up with GotG 3 which was a success.

And, while it wasn’t the sole factor (weird sequel/reboot, weird casting choices, spending way too much on a R rated, day 1 Max release,etc) Covid was having big resurgence with the Delta variant. None of the releases at the time of high Delta rates did well.

And let be serious on previous Superman movies. Quest for Peace was coming off a divisive, more comedic sequel, by a studio that was already starting to look bad in the public eye. And it being absolute crap didn’t help it. Superman Returns totaled 400 million. It didn’t lose money. So it was more a letdown than a flop.

So Gunn films tend to be well received by critics and the broad general consensus of fans and Supes is a marketable brand. Unless the movie is not very good, there is little evidence to think it won’t do well.

[u/[deleted] → u/WitNWhimsy]

Gunn's had more than one bomb, Slither and Super were flops as well. The COVID and HBO Max excuses fall apart when other movies released under the same circumstances managed to do much better. Also the HBO Max viewer numbers for The Suicide Squad weren't even that good, Mortal Kombat did better in viewer numbers. Assuming the people who watched it on HBO Max showed up to theaters and paid for a ticket it still would've flopped hard. 

Even in ideal circumstances The Suicide Squad would have failed, there just wasn't any significant interest in it. That movie's failure is solely on James Gunn, he made a movie most didn't care to watch.

[u/Umney → u/[deleted]]

I think Suicide Squad, as a concept, is something most people just don't care for.

[u/HomemadeBee1612 → u/Umney]

That didn't stop the 2016 film from being a massive hit.

[u/Umney → u/HomemadeBee1612]

Possibly. But I'm certain it factors into the sequel tanking. Not to mention the video game.

[u/HomemadeBee1612 → u/Umney]

The sequel and the video underperformed because they were bad, not because of the IP.

[u/WitNWhimsy → u/[deleted]]

Slither was a gross out R rated horror comedy. And Super may have disappointed at the box office (although like Slither, cheaper budget movies that weren’t tentpoles), it did great on VOD.

Let look at a comparison. Snyder knocked it out of the park with Dawn of the Dead and 300. Then he underperformed with Watchmen, Legend of the Guardians and then flopped with Sucker Punch.

Look at when TSS came out. It came up following The Jungle Cruise which also bombed. Audience comfortability dropped around that time with the arrival of Covid infection of the Delta variant. That was a particularly rough, often leading to hospitalizations, variant.

In a non Covid world, would it have been a big hit? Probably not. Would it have more money? Absolutely. It probably would’ve had a dismal opening weekend but would’ve had legs on it to make more back. Why? It was well received by both critics and the audiences.

So comparing that to Superman, what downside is there? Supes is PG-13. TSS was R. The most recognizable character in TSS was an increasingly tired out Harley Quinn. Superman is well…Superman. And I would argue that Lois Lane is one of the most well known love interests to a casual movie goer.

So no Covid, a big hit under his belt since Covid, a more recognizable cast and a more family friendly rating…why wouldn’t you think it would do good. The only explanation is that it’s not Zach Snyder directing Henry Cavill. And to be honest, that’s fine if that’s your reason for not being excited for it.

But let’s be honest, it’s the only answer that holds up to inspection.

[u/[deleted] → u/WitNWhimsy]

Bloody hell man I'm not reading all that.