Chapitre 686: Chapter 686: Warner DC Universe
Tonight, The Avengers premiered in North America at Universal Studios Hollywood. The full release would start this Friday.
Before this, the movie had already premiered in Europe in London, Australia in Sydney, and Asia in Osaka, Japan.
The promotional activities for The Avengers were grander than for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. After all, Hasbro was also involved in promoting Transformers: Dark of the Moon and had prepared many activities.
The production cost was $200 million, and the promotional expenses exceeded $100 million. The Avengers was undoubtedly Universal's biggest investment this year.
A series of products brought by the movie, such as comics and toys, were being launched methodically. Universal Studios' offline experiences were fully rolled out.
...
While Universal Studios hosted the grand premiere of The Avengers, the atmosphere at Warner Bros. headquarters was quite the opposite - a silent meeting.
Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer, Warner Bros. President Jeff Robinov, and Warner Bros. COO and Co-CEO Alan Horn were each sitting on their sofas, smoking cigars.
Warner Bros.' recently released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 did very well, with a North American opening weekend earning nearly 170 million dollars. It should have been a happy occasion.
But currently, the discussion was about Warner Bros.' DC movie universe.
"Initially, we planned Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and Christopher Nolan's Batman. Unfortunately, Superman Returns did not meet expectations," said Barry Meyer.
"But Nolan's Batman series reached new heights!" he added.
Barry Meyer continued, "Then Capet built upon Marvel's foundation to successively launch Iron Man and Thor. Then came Captain America: The First Avenger, The Incredible Hulk, leading up to this year's The Avengers."
"The Marvel Cinematic Universe is indeed a perfect concept!" he shook his head and continued, "And what about us? The Justice League was scrapped due to conflicts with Nolan's Batman series, coupled with the writers' strike and the financial crisis."
"With the Batman trilogy by Nolan and the Harry Potter series concluding, we proposed the DC movie universe," said Barry. "Superman and Batman have been featured too much. We plan to do like Marvel and start with other superheroes."
"Green Lantern was a complete failure," Jeff Robinov sighed. "The sequel was canceled, and The Flash solo film was also shelved."
Warner Bros. initially wanted to emulate Marvel, using Green Lantern and The Flash - two popular characters - to lead up to Justice League.
After all, Nolan's Batman trilogy was coming to an end. The plan was to make two Green Lantern movies and two Flash movies to introduce other heroes in Justice League, especially DC's two big names, Superman and Batman.
Alan Horn put out his cigar in an ashtray. "Plans changed too quickly. The failures of Superman Returns and Green Lantern were similar; too many script and director changes," he grumbled.
"DC has more characters than just Superman and Batman, yet now we're restarting Superman: Man of Steel!" Alan Horn was frustrated with Warner Bros.' frequent changes in internal decisions.
"Superman Returns already came out in 2006. It's the right time to greenlight Zack Snyder's development of Man of Steel," Barry Meyer frowned.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, which is now showing, is the finale. And next year, Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises will also conclude the series," he continued.
"Man of Steel must be released the year after next to compete with Marvel. Right now, Marvel's two movies a year strategy is taking too much market share!" said Barry.
Alan Horn explained, "If we're to learn from Universal's strategy, we have to learn it well. Charles Capet dared to delegate power."
"Their strategy revolves around the family-friendly popcorn blockbuster concept that Charles Capet initially devised. The filmmakers, writers, and actors all operated within his framework," Alan said.
"Look at us. Christopher Nolan did make Batman into something no superhero movie had reached before," he went on.
"But such script depth sets a high bar for directors that we can't reasonably expect every DC film to meet," he concluded.
"Trying to balance artistic depth and box office success at the same time is very tough for superhero movies!" Alan Horn stood up.
"Zack Snyder's Watchmen did capture a unique essence; critics even hailed it as the best superhero movie," he added.
"But commercially? It flopped. That's not what audiences want!" he said.
"So what's your idea? Should we stop Man of Steel altogether?" Jeff Robinov felt helpless.
"We need to compete in the superhero movie market against Universal's Marvel. We're already lagging behind," said Jeff.
Man of Steel was planned to be directed by Christopher Nolan, but he declined and recommended Zack Snyder, while agreeing to be a producer.
"Also, recently, 20th Century Fox returned the rights to Daredevil and the Fantastic Four back to Marvel Studios," Jeff Robinov added.
"The Fantastic Four, second only to Spider-Man and X-Men in Marvel Comics, are back with Marvel now. Who knows what new heights they'll reach?"
Barry Meyer stood up. "Let's put our full support behind Man of Steel and make it the first film of the DC Universe!"
Man of Steel was written by top Hollywood screenwriter David S. Goyer, directed by Zack Snyder, with Christopher Nolan involved as a producer. Warner Bros. was indeed putting all their efforts into supporting it.
This year's failure of Green Lantern definitely meant some executives at Warner Bros. had to take responsibility, and Barry Meyer looked serious.
With the Harry Potter series and Nolan's Batman series ending, Warner Bros. needed to find new major IPs.
DC was a treasure trove, but Warner Bros. had not been able to capitalize on it properly. Major reshuffles at the top of Warner Bros. were quite expected.
*****
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone