The comic-themed November showdown between Thor: Ragnarok and Justice League is about to enter the final, decisive round.
With Ragnarok doing gangbusters at the global box office, all eyes are beginning to turn toward the DC Extended Universe and Justice League, in particular, to see what Warner Bros. can muster. Truth be told, early reviews have not been kind to the Zack Snyder tentpole, after many critics openly bashed Justice League for its poor execution and woeful CGI – one review even christened the film’s mega-villain as Missteppenwolf: Dark Lord Of The Uncanny Valley. So to put it kindly: DC’s biggest movie hasn’t exactly got off to the best of starts.
But it seems the bigwigs at Warner Bros. are beginning to fret over the film’s opening weekend. Sources close to The Hollywood Reporter warn that Justice League will struggle to beat Thor: Ragnarok‘s domestic bow ($127.7 million), after the latest figures estimated that JL is now tracking for a $110 million debut in the United States.
As one insider so aptly put it, “if a B character from Marvel shutdowns and outperforms the A team from DC, that’s an embarrassment. It’s going to be a stressful weekend for some [Warner] execs.”
That’s not to say that Justice League will be an out-and-out failure; even with its lowly Tomatometer score (40 percent, last we checked), the Warner Bros. blockbuster is still expected to collect around $355 million worldwide over the course of the weekend. That largely comes down to the fact that WB consolidated its release schedule for Justice League, whereas Thor: Ragnarok opened overseas first before lighting up theaters across North America.
That being said, we imagine JL will have a longer tail than its Marvel counterpart. For one, the MCU is already beginning to gear up for its next instalment (read: Black Panther), while the DCEUÂ doesn’t have anything else scheduled between now and Aquaman (December 21st, 2018), so Zack Snyder’s ensemble piece will naturally enjoy some breathing space. That’ll help boost the grand total, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that Justice League struggled to leave much of an impression on critics, and that general apathy will no doubt trickle down to the audience.
For a lot of people who are following DC Cinematic Universe, Justice League is the last chance for them to get it right. If it’s as reviled as Batman v Superman, I think some of the fans are going to check out.
The battle for comic book supremacy will take a new twist tomorrow, November 17th, when fans will be flocking to see Justice League on the big screen. But what do you make of THR’s report? You can, as always, leave your thoughts in the usual spot.
Published: Nov 16, 2017 03:18 pm