JUSTICE LEAGUE Box Office Failed to Meet Expectations; Opens in the U.S. at $96 Million and $281 Million Worldwide
You read that right, JUSTICE LEAGUE opened with an estimated $96 million which is less than the opening of BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE at $166M, SUICIDE SQUAD at $133M, MAN OF STEEL at $116M, and WONDER WOMAN at $103M.
This is bad, folks. Really bad. An ensemble movie adding highly popular DC superheroes to the DCEU should have inherently brought in tons and tons of box office cash this weekend.
Overseas, JUSTICE LEAGUE did better than here in the states bringing in $185 million. International box office ticket sales could be the savior here since it has shown to have enough power to save movies who perform poorly domestically. Recent examples just this year are FATE OF THE FURIOUS, DESPICABLE ME 3, and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES.
Worldwide, JUSTICE LEAGUE has opened to an estimated $281 million. For comparative purposes, BATMAN V. SUPERMAN opened to $420 million worldwide. Ouch. And don't forget that the reported production budget was in the $300 million range. So there's a long way to go for the film to start making profits for the studio as rumors claim the movie needs to reach the $600M–$700M range to get into the black.
A rough start for JUSTICE LEAGUE, for sure, and you can bet there will be some interesting news reports about potential internal drama at the studio, perhaps as early as in the coming days. JUSTICE LEAGUE should have easily opened to at least the same level as BATMAN V. SUPERMAN, but instead its performance has failed its DC fans after all the positivity generated by WONDER WOMAN over the summer.
Rant time... regardless of if you loved or hated Warner Bros. and DC's most anticipated team-up movie ever, it fell way short of expectations and fans should expect major changes in the top executive offices of Warner Bros., and maybe even at DC Entertainment, moving forward. This was supposed to be the ensemble film that broke through the $1 billion worldwide box office barrier and it couldn't even open as big as BATMAN V. SUPERMAN, which was critically panned worse than JUSTICE LEAGUE. It seems more than obvious right now to say that Warner Bros. and DC have a perception issue with the general audience that has been tainted by director Zack Snyder's vision for this superhero universe. Sure, he's going through a tough personal loss this year, but Warner Bros. is also to blame after BATMAN V. SUPERMAN suffered; yet they still handed the keys to JUSTICE LEAGUE back over to Snyder for another go. We are now seeing how bad of a decision this was and the finger pointing should be directed at Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara for making the decision to continue doing business with Snyder.
Final note: Before you come at me and say that I'm a Marvel homer, do not forget that I was one of the few who somewhat enjoyed JUSTICE LEAGUE and I thought it would perform better, and be better received by critics, than it did. (My review link is below.) This isn't about favoritism, this is about facts and the facts say JUSTICE LEAGUE failed to open as big as it easily should have. You have to work really hard to make a movie with beloved heroes this divisive. This film featured some of the most popular superheroes of all-time together as a team for the first time and should have broke box office records this weekend.
[All numbers sourced from BoxOfficeMojo.]
Written by Daniel Wolf, DailySuperHero.com Founder & Publisher
Review:
JUSTICE LEAGUE Is Like Reading a One-Shot Comic Book But In Live Action
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