1. Most fans Hate the dceu
Let me know if you have heard people say this before, "reboot it", "most fans hate it", "reboot the dceu". Box office aside When you ask how do they know what all the fans are thinking? Or what actual measurement they have on this? They usually point to rotten tomatoes.
For the record on rotten tomatoes:
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64% from over 200k in fans gave a positive nod to Batman v superman (that’s the majority)
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63% of 130k fans also gave a positive nod to suicide squad
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and 75% of 440k fans gave a positive nod to man of steel
as an fyi man of steels 75% audience reception on rotten tomatoes is higher than Iron man 2 (71%) and 2008 incredible hulk (71%)
so the audience reception to these movies is not that dissimilar to the MCU movies at the same stage.
this is the closest thing we have to empirical evidence of fans reception of the DCEU. Can we finally put this argument to bed that most fans DO like the DCEU movies.
Anyone that says otherwise should be challenged to substantiate their claim with hard facts not just really loud opinions.
2. Marvel never had director troubles
That’s not true
We all know Jon Favreau had issues that led to him leaving the MCU after iron man 2
Joss Whedon had a falling out after age of Ultron
Alan Taylor described his experience of working with marvel on Thor 2 as "Particularly Wrenching"
we also know of Edgar wrights problems with Ant Man
I’m not even going to talk about the people who were in talks (because being in talks means you were just discussing not signed) like Ava Duvernay for example. You can’t lose something you don’t have.
in fact this carried on right through to phase 3. The Big thing that changed was that the MCU started getting people to sign contracts preventing them ever speaking negatively about them on social media or any other outlet. This is now standard practice in Disney. So just because you don’t hear it doesn’t mean its not happening.
3.Marvel Never had Actor troubles
what about Terence Howard who was coming off the back of Oscar nominations and an upward career trajectory falling into negotiation issues and eventually being recast? I would argue that Terence Howard was a bigger star than Robert Downey Jr when he was cast in iron man 1. He wanted a bigger part and more money and was eventually recast.
so you see the mcu actually got rid of two of its biggest names because they realised like wb do that the franchise is bigger than the star.
Remember all the rumours about Robert Downey jr leaving iron man? even he admitted that those rumours had substance and in the end marvel/Disney made him the highest paid actor in the world to keep him.
I say this because the most vocal critics of the dceu like to contrast it with Marvel but a lot of those comparisons are either done inaccurately or are downright disingenuous. At the start there will be bumps and some people might have to go for the good of the franchise.
4.DCEU is reactionary
But so is the MCU!!! Civil war was a reaction to batman v superman anyone who says this Civil war is organic or was built up to is either deluded or just plain lying to you (heck the russos and kevin feige admitted as much), Does it work in that universe? Yes but it is still a reaction to batman v superman.
Just like captain marvel is a reaction to wonder woman and namor is a reaction to aquaman. In fact i would go as far as saying marvel is reacting to the dceu way more than the reverse.
So lets stop with this marvel grand design nonsense. its great for marketing sound bites and for fanboys who want to sound clever but anyone with a brain can see there are many changes being made to the road being taken.
truth of the matter is that all businesses react to their environment. Any business that does not react to its competitors and environment is poorly run and will fail. Simple as.
5.Warner Bros is a mess
Their DCEU movies grossed more money domestically than the mcu movies.
Why is that significant? because in 2016 the three major studios put 2 movies each out and warner bros finished top of the pile domestically and most probably would have out grossed the mcu internationally if suicide squad had been released in china too. Point of the matter is they are doing well.
Even without the DCEU, they had a really successful 2016 putting successful combinations from small movies like the conjuring 2, lights out, sully, the accountant, me before you, central intelligence to bigger movies like fantastic beasts.
Television wise they are killing it. DCTV makes over a billion a year for them. Comics wise rebirth was a huge success, they have been doing well in animation and now also have justice league action. WB Games thanks to the arkham games was the top games studio of 2015, while they didn’t put out much in 2016 we know injustice 2 will be a success for them.
If they want to amend your concern to say "I think Warner bros could handle the cinematic universe part of dc better" then that’s something i can agree with them on. But anyone trying to rubbish the studio overall is wrong. WB is more than the dceu but even then they way they are handling DC overall is very positive, they just need to iron out the issues they are having within the specific cinematic part of dc. I would go as far as saying they are the best run studio in Hollywood.
6.WB only does things for money
A studio that Genuinely only does things for money is Disney who decided they would put out fewer movies but primarily make only blockbusters because they wanted to make alot of money per film.
Imagine if warner bros had said the same thing? that they would stop doing all their mid budgeted movies because they only wanted to make blockbusters? i can imagine all the hate that they would get.
Also people who say wb are only using dceu for money are wrong. at first they said they were rushing and that the people making these movies don’t care, but we can now all see that they are not rushing and not averse to delaying a movie if it isn’t coming together right. Also the comments from all involved tells you that they do care deeply about making great movies or they wont make them at all.
All studios do need to make money but warner bros has more credibility in this department than Disney, Sony or any other studio. What they did in 2016 in balancing successful small-mid budget movies like conjuring 2 and lights out with big budget success like suicide squad and fantastic beasts was impressive and how studios should be run.
7.There is no bias/agenda against the dceu
it is the only cinematic universe where someone can say "a friend of mine didn’t like (insert dc movie title)" and it will turn up in every online blog and outlet as fact. Is part of it because Disney owns maker studios which is the largest online YouTube studio and owns thousands of YouTube channels? or is part of it because the person who runs rotten tomatoes (Matt atchity) hates the dceu? we will never know.
ask yourself with warner bros making more money than universal, paramount, Lionsgate last year, why is it that you never hear the sky is falling narrative with these studios? Because if Warner bros is struggling then the situation with these other studios must be downright critical and deserving of some columns in the media too, right? it’s because the criticism is linked specifically to the anti-dceu sentiment perpetuated by the enemies of the studio.
Every time a movie talk show or a movie pundit throws this shade at wb, you will now know either that pundit is poor at their job or simply ignoring the facts to attack them because of their bias.
The single biggest threat to the dceu is not from casual fans but from the emergence of toxic bloggers and youtubers within this sect of fandom who have hijacked the narrative and use negativity of the dceu to attract new clicks and traffic. If after everything you have just read you still don’t see there is a negative double standard against the dceu then there is no help for you.
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