The single biggest reason the DCEU has struggled is because of the influence that Snyder had over it.
For anyone who bothers to check you will find that Justice league is the 5th consecutive movie that Snyder has directed that critics are unhappy with, so his run of rotten scores stretches back a long way, I put the link below for anyone who cares to check
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/zack_snyder/
To be fair, i felt that man of steel should have broken that streak as it was (in my opinion) a very good movie that deserved way more praise than it got.
But beyond the critical failings, the truly mindboggling stat is that Justice league is the 6th CONSECUTIVE BOX OFFICE UNDERPERFORMER from Snyder.
yes this is a run stretching back to watchmen. But yet somehow Zack Snyder has continued being given bigger and bigger budgets along with projects that most directors in Hollywood would kill for.
It is a really good example of failing upwards. I also put the link below for anyone who wants to check
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Director&id=zacksnyder.htm
in any other studio, this guy that makes movies that are not well liked and dont make the money they want would have been farmed out a long time ago.
But even more Incredibly you still have people acting like the studio has been harsh to Snyder when all things considered I believe warner bros has actually indulged him and stuck with him and given him a way out that allows him to save face.
For the record, i enjoyed man of steel, BVS and Justice league. I also think Snyder has some good ideas stylistically, but I believe in future he will be more useful to WB from behind the scenes in a production and maybe even concepts capacity.
Many of the worst aspects of the DCEU are directly from Snyder. The neck break in 'man of steel' came from Snyder and that despite the fact that Nolan advised against it. The casting of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is a Snyder thing too, shooting jimmy Olsen in the head, again Snyder's idea.
Having Steppenwolf be pure CGI is Snyders idea too.
In fact if i am to believe recent rumours the real reason so much of Snyders Justice league was changed and Whedon was brought in was becaucse Zack snyders version of Justice league tested so poorly with Audience, WB should have delayed it but instead brought whedon in to salvage what he could. Again the fact that snyder got to waste another 200 million is staggering
One of the things that give me the most hope is that Snyder will be away from the DCEU and filmmakers who earn their spot will see their influence grow. This is the right way to do things. In the MCU the Russo have definitely been hitting it out of the park, and they have been rewarded with bigger projects. Someone like Patty Jenkins should be given a bigger project in my opinion like Man of steel two as she is the person who has delivered for the DCEU
The simple truth is that beyond DC and Marvel there is a bigger fight between Disney and Warner Bros stretching back many decades. Disney has been very aggressive in attacking the DCEU true many surrogates. IN many instances the onscreen talent like Robert Downey Junior, or Anthony Mackie or even Samuel Jackson has proactively attacked the DCEU and encouraged other people in the media to do so too. There are actual videos of this you can find on youtube here is an example of one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP6LkvXN5LY
We know the MCU was pushing this proactively for a while it's just that more recently it's being caught on video. Ask yourself what impact comments like Mackie's would have to less prominent or successful media people than steve frosty? Over time could this also be why people in media appear to be more critical of DCEU movies? If they are being pressured by some people within the industry (like Mackie does in the video) to be more critical of the DCEU, what effect does that have? We cant say from here for sure, but you can not argue with the video.
also here's an article from back in 2008 where Robert Downey Jr attacks the dark knight
http://www.slashfilm.com/robert-downey-jr-disses-the-dark-knight-tells-dc-comics-to-fo/
The constant comparisons to the MCU also do not help, many people in the media feel like there are too many comic book movies and don't like how these movies dominate the box office.
With the DCEU arriving they have used the MCU which is already established as a way to try to derail the DCEU by constantly saying "it's not the MCU" but in my opinion given time, the DCEU will be established. The point im making is that a big part of the pushing of this narrative is from Disney because the MCU forms one of their three branches for their movie studios and the DCEU is the only serious threat and that partly explains why so many of their talent has been involved in attacks on the DCEU.
The media has played a significant part in holding the DCEU back.
Ask yourself if you think its strange that people are saying Justice league will lose 100 million after one week?
If you do, then you haven't been paying attention to the last five years.
Negative DCEU articles are the best way to get clicks, in many many entertainment websites the most read articles are the ones that have some sort of negative slant on the DCEU. So if you wonder why the break-even points for every DCEU movies is discussed and even constantly revised upwards to maintain a narrative, the simple answer is clicks = money. Negative DCEU articles get clicks, Lots of em.
Well, you might say "that sounds ridiculous" why don't they do the same for the MCU? get twice as many clicks?"
Well put quite simply Disney is a vindictive studio and are well know for blackballing People who give them negative coverage or run negative stories on them. The other thing is part of the attractiveness of the Narrative on the DCEU is being able to use the MCU and Disney as a contrast.
Ask yourself where are all the break-even articles about the MCU films? Seriously where are they? Every DCEU movie gets one, even when suicide squad opened to over a 130 million, it got one and they used that as an excuse to diminish the movie's achievements.
Suicide squad was more profitable than winter soldier and even doctor strange and the only comic book movies in recent years more profitable than wonder woman is Iron man 3, age of Ultron and Deadpool so why is none of this done for any MCU movie?
if those dceu movies have similar budgets and are producing returns in line with MCU movies, why are they the only ones singled out for these articles?
But there is a knock on effect of these negative articles; it ultimately affects peoples decisions to see and support the DCEU
if you hear that a movie is doing badly and losing money unless you are a fan you might take it that it means that movie is bad and that maybe you should avoid it altogether.
It would be better for these articles to be done at the end of the films theatrical runbut it wont get as many clicks.
the other thing about these articles is the impact it has on the creative process, Let me explain. If you are a shareholder or even an investor in one of the dceu movies and on the first day of the release you get an article saying how its an uphill battle for you to breakeven or not lose money. These sort of articles dont just appear in blogs anymore as the battle for clicks is quite intensive, when these stories make its way to the established outlets like The hollywood reporter or Variety where actual hollywood people read regularly then be sure changes will happen. All the attacks about WB being reactionary is wrong, the main focus should be on the media outlets whose hyperbole spooks investors into pressuring WB execs like tsujihara to change direction quickly.
Do you think if Disney was getting these break-even articles after every movie that Feige would be given the level of control or freedom he has over the MCU now? Short answer is no!!
Speaking of Disney and the media another thing is that the "loose lips sink ships" slogan in Disney is a real thing! It's not a conspiracy theory; it is real! This is something that was rumored for a while and is portrayed as something that was done to keep spoilers from getting out, but over the last four years, in particular, Disney has cleverly leveraged this to make many of your favorite commentators "partners" In their distribution strategy.
it went from "you are not allowed to say this about the movie", to "you are allowed to say this" and today its "you should say this"
If you wonder why some media outlets act almost like shills for Disney, this is why, but the flipside is that some of them buy into the anti dceu mentality discussed in the previous points and espouse talking points that serve Disney. Its why so many reviews of disney movies almost reads like adverts for the movies with similar wording and talking points used through out
Its why every new Disney movie is their favorite ever...(Pixar movie, MCU movie, etc.) that is till a month after the movie comes out and then their real ratings on said movie becomes clear. Many of these outlets take it as a personal responsibility to promote some of the Disney movies
Dont take my word for it do some research yourself.
This is the Bit that a little bit hard to write, there are elements of the dceu fandom that leave a lot to be desired, more specifically the parts of the fandom that are toxic are the Snyder fans, the ones who act like if you didn't like BVS then its because you were stupid or not intellectual enough to understand it.
if you liked BVS and didn't think it was a "Master Piece" these same "Snyder fans" will attack you and call you stupid or a hater. It is true that some people in the Media are haters, there are many YouTubers and even mainstream outlets whose coverage and analysis of Snyder films is completely unprofessional, and that should be called out.
The idea of fake news in the media is something that DCEU fans had experience with well before it was mainstream. Remember that Pajiba article on wonder woman last year? I do! All these things can add up to make DCEU fans mad about a lot of things, but DCEU fans have to be better and more respectful. The many petitions being banded on Justice league releasing the Snyder cut is a really good example of some of the toxic activist voices being the loudest.
I am of the view that many critics lash out at Snyder and the DCEU extra hard because they want to get back at some of the more toxic voices that troll them regularly. I think if we want to challenge the narrative then we should be raising our issues with these people respectfully or ignoring them completely
It is worth pointing out that there are many toxic marvel fans too it is especially bad because many of them run youtube channels and are in the media too. Heck Anthony Mackie behavior in that video above is just a glimpse into the behavior of some of these people. But just because the MCU fans are toxic does not mean we as DCEU fans should stoop to their level, let's be clear this level of toxicity did not exist before the MCU, and the Marvel/ Disney has driven this nonsense far more than a few internet fanboys. But we should be better than them.