The DCU's First Box Office Bomb Confirms James Gunn's Batman Problem

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While the DCU is still in its earliest stage, the underwhelming opening box office for Supergirl has highlighted a much bigger issue for this developing universe of stories. Supergirl’s debut marks the second feature-length release from James Gunn’s and Peter Safran’s DC Studios, but despite a big marketing push and promises of sharp and well-defined stories, Kara’s arrival in the DCU isn’t landing with audiences as intended.

Aside from polarizing reviews, with many highlighting issues around the Supergirl film emulating a James Gunn style of storytelling, odd choices around the soundtrack, and a lacking villain, the film has only managed to earn $38 million domestically, which is considerably less than the projected $50 million that was anticipated.

With a budget of $170 million before marketing costs are accounted for, Supergirl has a long way to go before it comes close to breaking even, but this may not be the biggest issue that the DCU is facing as they struggle to piece together a universe with characters that are struggling to get the reaction that they need to guarantee the franchise’s future.

Supergirl’s Box Office Is Just A Part Of The Problem For The DCU

Peter Safran released a positive response surrounding the disappointing opening weekend performance in a quote for the New York Times, where he said, “While ‘Supergirl’ didn’t meet our box office expectations, it’s just one component of a broader, long-term strategy at DC Studios that we remain confident in.” Unfortunately, it’s the long term strategy that fans are confused about.

Yes, Gunn spoke about this first era of the DCU being labeled “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters,” but aside from a Superman movie, the slate seems extremely disjointed. Even the sequel, Man of Tomorrow, is being toted as not actually a sequel, but some other story, with Superman and Lex Luthor joining forces against another rival, which just sounds like a sequel.

Then, there are upcoming DC projects like Clayface, The Dynamic Duo, and a Bane and Deathstroke project, all of which center on characters from the world of Batman. But despite announcing an upcoming Batman movie titled The Brave and the Bold, there is no information about who will play the character, no confirmation of when the movie will be released, and overall, a huge amount of uncertainty circling around DC’s most popular character.

Then, to further add to the confusion, the only Batman stories coming out of DC Studios are the Matt Reeves The Batman films, which have repeatedly been confirmed to not connect to the mainline DCU. So, the most exciting project on the slate is an Elseworlds project which Gunn has relatively less influence over, due to the story not needing to tie in with anything else that happens in his ambitious sprawling universe.

The DCU Can’t Survive Without A Clear Plan For Batman And The Justice League

Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash looking tense while staring off at something in the darkness in Justice League. — Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash looking tense in Justice League

Here’s the thing: even when Marvel is falling short with the Multiverse Saga, their tentpole hero, Spider-Man, still manages to draw massive attention, getting hundreds of millions of views on a trailer in just 24 hours. It’s almost certain that the film will cross the billion-dollar threshold at the box office, and despite a complex partnership with Sony to make these movies in the MCU, Marvel benefits hugely from their success.

For DC, the same is true of Batman and stories that bring the entire Justice League together. Despite divisive reviews throughout the DCEU, Justice League movies got a lot of attention, and the Batman v Superman movie racked up over $420 million in its opening weekend worldwide, and that was with abysmal reviews.

As great as the Matt Reeves Batverse is, the uncertainty about the Dark Knight’s role in the DCU is hurting the franchise before it ever gets off the ground. And the numerous releases that all draw attention to Gotham will only make this a bigger problem that needs to be corrected; otherwise, Supergirl will not be the last movie to flop for the DCU.