Transcription
All right, everybody. I am finally back with a brand new DC update. And this one could be a lengthy update. So, if you want to grab a snack and a drink and just kind of sit back and watch the video, that would probably be best because we have a lot to cover.
I actually, after I posted my video on Friday, I took off to Vegas to visit my daughter over the weekend with my wife. And since then, I just have not had the time to do a video. I've been extremely busy with my voiceover jobs and uh some other things that I do. And so, I have not been able to put up a video, but a lot has happened. And in fact, on my trip back, for those who didn't see the short that I put up over the weekend, there was a lot of talk about Superman beating Batman vs. Superman domestically at the box office. And I had to do a video just reiterating once again, and I'm going to say this multiple times during this video, this version of Superman, David Corinwatz, is the least popular Superman since Superman started releasing movies in '78. Okay? He just is not the least viewed movie because Superman 3 and 4 beat it. But Superman, the one that James Gun just released, is barely above 3 and 4. Okay, it does not beat Superman Returns. It does not beat Superman the movie. It does not beat Man of Steel, Batman versus Superman, Justice League, none of those. All of those movies sold more tickets than Superman did. It's just a fact. I look at ticket sales and I've said this from the beginning. If you do seat for seat, and this is why I always adjust for inflation, you want a ticket-to-ticket comparison. And you can have all these people say all they want about things have changed this or that. He's still the number one superhero in the entire world and he he barely cracked 550 million at the box office. And we're going to see when it's coming to digital. And we're going to see some funny things in regards to the release date for digital because it's happening a lot sooner than people said it was going to happen. But let's get started.
So, first up, it says, this comes from Klay Travis. It says, "The new Superman is likely to lose $100 million and underperform the last Superman movie. The Fantastic Four movie has done poorly, too." Someone asks if superhero movies are finished as major money makers. Thoughts?
So, here are my thoughts on this. People are not done with superhero films. Yes, overall there is less of an interest in superhero films because there have been so many poorly made comedies that have been released over the last 5 years that people have lost lost interest because they don't have any value to them. You had Superman No Way Home or not Superman Spider-Man No Way Home and you also or is it No Way Home, whatever it is. The the last one with all the into the I can't remember the name of it. The one with all three Spider-Mans in it. And also you had Deadpool and Wolverine. Both of those films made way over a billion dollars. Joker, which really wasn't that long ago, also made over a billion dollars. Because when you take these movies seriously, people go to see them. Now, people are going to come back and say Deadpool Wolverine wasn't serious. No, it wasn't. But that's that character. You know what you were getting into. They catered to the audience. Those films catered to the audience like Barbie catered to the audience like Top Gun Maverick did. You know what movies didn't? Certainly Superman did not. Nobody was asking for a reboot. Nobody asked for a new Superman. And what they did is they jammed it down the general audience's throat. And a lot of people actually like the movie, but I have yet to meet anybody who actually loved it. And so, it's passable as a film, but it's not the big juggernaut they needed to be. Definitely not something to start off a universe. And anybody who thinks 550 million is good, they have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to films. You can't do that with a character like Superman.
Now, I thought this was funny. DC film news is getting a lot of things wrong recently. And we're going to see a couple of the things they got wrong just in the first few photos I'm going to show you here today. And this first one says, "James Gun shuts down speculation about Robin appearing in The Batman 2. He says, 'Guys, please stop believing this nonsense. I think six of us have read the script. No one knows anything about The Batman 2.'" First of all, James Gunn is lying right off the bat. He says, "No one knows about The Batman, anything about The Batman 2." Yet, the previous sentence says six of six individuals know something about the script that they have read it. So, there's at least six people who know something about Batman 2. And there have been a lot of leaks. I'll remind people that all the leaks that came out for Superman four to five months before it got released were all true. Every single one of them was true. So there are people leaking information to these individuals. So do I believe Gunn? First of all, he is not shutting down speculation that Robin is appearing in The Batman 2. He's just telling people to stop believing the nonsense that is posted on social media. He did not specifically address Robin. He did not say Robin is not in the film. He is sidestepping the actual the actual rumor. And this is what James Gunn does. He has done this many times where it's the exact opposite of what he ended up saying.
This was one of those posts by somebody online that I actually laughed at. This is the one time I'm going to give James Gunn kudos. Sammy Rickettts posted, "What is the point of Reeves making another Batman movie if it's not part of your DC universe? We don't need two different Batman movies to confuse fans." James Gunn simply responded with, "You don't seem to be confused." And this is the thing. I don't think people give the audience enough credit for understanding what is going on. When we had the DCU going, they did throw out the Batman film from Matt Reeves and people were expecting to see um, you know, the the film from uh Ben Affleck, but they got that film instead and it did divide audiences, but it did make quite a bit of money. People are smart enough to know when something is not part of something else. And comics have all these different versions of characters. The more the marrier. And some people understand that, some don't. Some think it's selfish and James Gunn should just run with his vision. And that's not how it should be.
Now, I thought this was interesting. I have my review for Weapons Up. I did go see it last Thursday, and I put my review up as soon as I got home, and it says, "Weapons director Zack Kger says he has finished writing a script that is set in the DC universe. He said it's totally original and it's not a superhero movie." And this comes from the Hollywood Reporter, and I think I have a synopsis of what he came up with, and it does sound kind of intriguing. Here it is. Zack Kger has written a DC film titled Henchmen, which he would love to make that hasn't been pitched to DC Studios yet. Would follow a low-level henchman in Gotham who manages to incapacitate Batman. Harley Quinn and Joker have roles in the story. This would actually be pretty cool. Um, there have been a couple Batman the animated series episodes where he was, you know, basically taken down by people. And it would be cool to see something like this. It would be very interesting to watch a low-level henchman take down Batman for some reason. And this could be an interesting story, more interesting than anything else that I've heard come out of DC Studios.
All right, so here is DC Film News again. And they posted Superman is flying to digital August 26th, 45 days after its theatrical debut. This was the date everybody said, everybody was posting last week that it was August 15th. And all these other networks, all these other outlets like DC Film News and some of these others came out and said, "No, it's August 26th." Well, we're going to actually see what the actual date is here in a few minutes. And I laughed when it got revealed.
Now, I don't know how reliable this is, but everything DCU posted that Supergirl had a screening of its rough cut last week and was well received. This movie is an entire year away. I don't know that they would have a rough cut that they would be showing to executives just yet. Uh, in fact, I'm not even sure if they are completely done filming it. Um, maybe they are. I may have been I may have reported on that already. But either way, this film is very much in post and it's going to take them a long time before this film is ready to show to anybody. So whether rough cut was shown or not is a whole another story. Um, and whether it was well received, it doesn't matter what studio executives think.
All right, so Batman Day is coming up and at your local comic shop, they're going to have some pretty cool stuff and I will be picking this up for sure. This is Absolute Batman number one on Batman Day. The cover that they're going to use, the edition for the reprinting of the first issue of the series. I have so many versions of that first issue, it's ridiculous. And I do have the hardcover for the collection of the first story that just came out, and I may do a video review on that at some point here in the near future. But if you haven't checked out Absolute Batman, you should definitely be checking it out.
So, it says here, this comes from James Gunn himself, that Lex Luthor's actions in Superman will reportedly tie into the events of Peacemaker season 2. Now, talking about this, I want to mention something that I thought was ridiculous. They are definitely showing how Peacemaker season 2 ties into the DCU. And James Gunn is even touting that we may find out how the DCU switched over to the DCU by watching Peacemaker season 2. Now, here's where I have a problem with this. They are heavily marketing Peacemaker season 2 right now on social media. And James Gunn himself said, you know, watch the further adventures of Superman. You know, when Peacemaker season 2 premieres on Max, I am not a fan of this. I am not a fan of them following up this crash dis this crash, this crash disgusting show following something like Superman that was for families. And for James Gunn to be promoting it that it's a continuation of Superman and they don't think kids have access to social media and are going to watch Peacemaker. And I posted about this on Twitter and people came in and said it's up to the parents to make sure that their kids are not watching stuff they shouldn't watch. Well, how about the studios don't pitch this garbage to kids in the first place? Why don't we start there? It's easy to lock down stuff. A lot of people don't know how to do that and that's fine. But you can't just put it on the parents when you're peddling it to the kids. And that's exactly what they're doing. And I will tell you that most of the ads start out with John Cena in his underwear facing a doorway. And this is what they're promoting on social media. And you don't think kids are seeing that crap? No. That's pretty messed up.
So it says, "My Adventures with Green Lantern will feature Kyle Rener, Nikki Jones, Kilawog, and more. Rener will serve as Jessica Cruz's love interest." Now, I do know that in the comics that Jessica Jessica Cruz, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that might be a different character. I think Baz, one of them was Muslim, but I thought Jessica Cruz was also um gay, but I could be wrong. I don't I didn't watch those versions of the character because I just don't care. And some people will like this. The show may end up being good. I'm just glad that I have the, you know, Green Lantern animated series that was released like five to 10 years ago or whenever it was. I have that on Blu-ray. That's a great show. I will continue to watch that. I don't need to watch these offshoot characters that I just don't simply care about at all.
Now, on that note, while I was on Twitter the other day, I decided to ask people because I had posted about Superman selling the least amount of tickets out of any version of Superman since Superman the movie. And I said, "Grock, show me all the nasty comments people have made to my posts simply because I pointed out Superman has sold fewer tickets than Superman Returns, Man of Steel, and Superman the movie." Grock said, "I've reviewed replies to your recent Superman box office posts. Here are examples of nasty comments. You guys can read these on the screen. I am not going to uh repeat these out loud, but at the end, Rock said, 'Facts often stir passion. Ignore the trolls.'" And I do. I don't respond to these people, but I get so many hate comments just for pointing out things that are true and I'm going to continue to point out the things that are true and I'm going to continue to report on them and I don't care if people have a problem with them. And I also asked for more examples and he provided more. Well, not he, Grock provided more examples as AI. It's not a person. More examples. And at the end, Grock again said, "Passions run high in fandom. Stay above the fray." And I do. I just shoot it I I just shoot it straight. I don't rile people up. I don't post things to piss people off. I can't help it if what I post upsets people. It just goes to show you how desperate they are to make Superman a hit when it simply was not.
On that note, South Cali guy posted this said definitely not a global phenomenon. And this is in regards to James Gunn's Superman. Cosmic Book News is out there also posting the truth. And they said James Gunn's Superman lost over half the audience of Zack Snyder's films and that is absolutely 100% true when you look at the ticket sales for you look at even though his version of Justice League was not part of it but if you look at Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman and Justice League, yes, they are drawing in a much bigger crowd than James Gunn's Superman. He has lost over half the audience because nobody asked for it.
So, this is what Cosmic Book News posted. "James Gunn's Superman has now passed Batman vs. Superman at the domestic box office, earning $331 million compared to Batman vs. Superman's $330 million." That headline made the rounds over the weekend with some outlets calling it the highest grossing Superman film ever domestically. But, as several movie watchers pointed out on X, the number hides the reality. Higher ticket prices are doing a lot of the work in terms of actual tickets sold. Superman is far behind its predecessors. Inflation-adjusted ticket sales reveal that far fewer people are watching Gunn's reboot. Gunn's Superman hasn't even reached $600 million and won't match Man of Steel's $670 million box office without accounting for inflation, let alone Batman versus Superman's $874.3 million. It is not the hit that the studio needed, no matter what they tell you.
Now, this made me laugh yesterday when this was posted. It said, "Breaking. Supergirl could beat Spider-Man in next summer's box office battle. Supergirl is expected to beat Spider-Man brand new day at the box office next July." Whoever came up with this is crazy. That is not going to happen. Supergirl won't even make as much money as Superman did. And the last Spider-Man movie made well over a billion dollars. You don't think people that Spider-Man is a draw? Why do you think they got the guy who plays Spider-Man to come back again when he said he was done? It's because they know that that's the version of the character people want to see. And the new suit is amazing. So, they're starting to give the fans what they want. Whereas DC is giving us things nobody asked for.
Here it is. DC Film News. Just after they posted that Superman was officially flying to digital on August 25th or whatever it was or 26th, they had to come out and say that Superman officially flies into home theater digital on August 15th. Wasn't that what people originally said? And these outlets said, "No, that isn't going to happen." A month. A month. 35 days. 35 days after Superman was released in theaters, it is going to be available at home. If it was making the money that the studios wanted, they would hold off on the digital and continue to sell it in theaters. But the thing is, it's not selling in theaters anymore. It's over. It's done. You know what isn't done? F1. It is getting re-released in IMAX theaters, and it is going strong. F1 is the best film I've seen this year by far. So, this movie is not the hit they want. What they're trying to do is they're trying to put it on digital. And when it first comes out on digital for like the first two to three weeks, it's going to be $30 to view it at home. $20 I think it's $24.99 to rent it or $29.99 to own it. So, they're trying to get those big ticket sales again to try and make more money as quickly as they can. What would really drive people back to the theaters is not to release them so quickly on digital. Wait 6 to 8 months like they used to. Then you would get a lot more sales in theaters.
Now this also comes from Cosmic Book News and I thought this was interesting and I don't know how true this is, but this was being posted all over social media and it says, "Oh boy, here we go. It's claimed that Warner Brothers is finding James Gunn's online behavior more and more annoying and that it's hurting things more than helping things." And I've said this for the last 2 years. The claim follows Gunn recently shooting down a rumor that Robin is in Matt Reeves' The Batman Part Two script. The rumor came via entertainment scooper Jeff Snyder who isn't too happy with Gunn's approach. Speaking on The Hot Mic on YouTube, Snyder blasted the DC Studios boss. He said, "I don't give a what James Gunn says anymore. The guy is the most annoying studio head I've ever heard of or met or seen or anything." And I totally agree with this. I don't think it's winning him any fans. I don't think it's winning him any fans on the Warner Brothers lot where I know people find him and his antics to be annoying. Snyder also jabbed Gunn over Superman's box office. "Bro, your movie is maybe probably going to get to $600 million. Take that win. If we want to call it that and shut up. Shut up. Go focus on reading scripts and making movies and TV shows because it seems you get paid a lot of money to spend a lot of time on blue sky and threads." I 100% agree with this. 100% agree with it.
Also, they released some images of James Gunn or not J not James Gunn of David Corinswe in the original suit that they had created for Superman. And I don't know if I have it in this video or if I showed it in the previous video, but they should have done it without trunks, but they showed this and this is absolutely hilarious at how goofy this actually looks. Now granted, this was at the first suit fitting and they actually had uh a video. There's a couple of videos floating around that are just mindblowing and it goes to show you how this was made and David Corinswe was not feeling it when he put this on. He was not feeling it and I can see why. Like this is quite frankly it's ridiculous. And I think the final suit was ridiculous as well. It was one of the worst aspects of the film. So for people who care, I am not buying this. Somebody will have to gift it to me because I am not spending my money on this. But it says Superman flies to digital August 15th and 4K UHD Blu-ray and DVD on September 23rd. Special features include Crypto Saves a Day, a 60-minute adventures and making Superman feature, and more. James Gunn's commentary, gag reel, and deleted scenes arrive soon on digital. I just don't care about this movie. I've loved every other iteration of Superman. Every other iteration. This one ranks at the very bottom. The very bottom.
Now, DC Film News posted this. This is supposedly from James Gunn. You know, he's writing this new super super family film, and you can see you got Supergirl there. You've got Superman, and then you have uh Krypto right next to him. And down below that, people were noting that it looks like it might be something like uh Brainiac. And so, it'll be interesting to see what this is from. Uh, but there's no no further details.
All right, guys. So, I am over on Mcfar or on uh X right now and as you can see, McFarland Toys is releasing the Batmobile Gold Label from The Batman film. Uh, this is going to be up for pre-sale order now exclusively at Amazon and McVor McFarland toy stores. And I will tell you of you will have a much better chance of getting this if you go to McFarland's toy store specifically. I don't care about getting this version of the Batmobile. Uh, I didn't I I mean, I enjoyed the movie enough, but I don't know. I don't know. I'd have to see what the price is on this. Let's Let's We'll take a look later, but uh it says featuring rolling wheels and an opening door. Fits seven-inch figures. Figure not included. It wouldn't be bad, but I would rather have the Batman '89 one before I got this.
Also, they're showing us that DC Studios has confirmed that Starfire and My Adventures with Green Lantern will not take place in the actual DCU. So, they will not be canon to the DCU.
Also, something that pissed people off on social media this weekend is I wanted to point out that in Man of Steel, Jonathan Kent sacrifices his life for his son in the tornado scene, which is highly controversial. A bunch of people, well, not really controversial amongst them, they hate it. And it I said Jonathan sacrificed his life for his son in that film. Whereas in Superman, Superman blatantly lets a man get killed because he won't tell Lex his identity or whatever information that Lex was wanting in that scene. He wouldn't give it to him. And so he he the guy was killed when Superman actually could have done something in that scene, but he didn't. Now people are going to say he was beat down by kryptonite. That is true, but at the same time, he could have just given the information to Lex. And I said, "Which one is worse?" It's pretty obvious, and it is, but this upset a bunch of people, and this is where a lot of nasty comments came in, but that's what you can expect at this stage.
All right, guys. So, there you have it for the day. Please chime up below what you think about the box office for Superman, about the digital release date being an a whole week earlier than what people thought it was going to be and everything that's going on with the DCU right now and the possibility that the studio is getting irritated with James Gunn. We going to take bets yet on whether he's going to get his contracted re his contract renewed next year or not? We shall see. All right, guys. I will see you on the next.