Although I’m sure we all have our varying opinions when it comes to Justice League (though not perfect, I personally found it to be an enjoyable moviegoing experience), it’s probably safe to say that many of us who love superhero flicks want to see the genre as a whole flourish. And for that to happen, it’s key that the big team-up movies enjoy as much success as possible.
Unfortunately, that’s just not happening with this bad boy, as the first film uniting the likes of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg is proving to be the least lucrative entry in the DC Extended Universe to date. Still, there are some positives to make note of, with several milestones having been achieved recently.
As you may have heard, Justice League passed $100 million over in China not too long ago and has now crossed $600 million worldwide. That’s thanks to its decent international haul of $401 million, which helped push Warner Bros. past the $5 billion mark for 2017. On home turf, meanwhile, the pic pulled in another $9.6 million to bring its domestic total up to $212.1 million in 24 days, which makes it the 10th biggest film of 2017, but still the lowest performing DCEU movie to date.
Granted, Justice League does still have some legs and will be in theaters for a while longer, but from what we understand, WB is said to be staring down the face of a $50m-$100m loss. Forbes did the number crunching and revealed that the DC epic must collect around $700-$750 million if it’s to turn a profit for the studio. At this point, it doesn’t seem likely that it’ll reach that mark, and even if it does, there’s no way that it’ll ever be deemed a success.
That being said, the star-studded blockbuster is by no means an out-and-out failure, merely a missed opportunity that could’ve spent a little more time in the oven. Right now, all we can hope for is that Warner Bros. learns from the mistakes they made with Justice League and takes a better approach to the DCEU moving forward.