Batman: Brave and the Bold

[Toups]

 

 

[BetterForgotten]

With ‘The Flash’ bombing hard this weekend and now not projected to make back its production/promotion budget, I wonder how soon before Muschietti is replaced or leaves because of “creative differences.” 

Edited June 18, 2023 by BetterForgotten

[Toups]

I doubt the box office of The Flash will have anything to do if Andy leaves.  James Gunn chose Andy for this project knowing what the box office projection was going to be.  I'm willing to give Andy another chance because The Flash went through so many regime changes/delays, and the star of the movie was so problematic that they (Ezra) couldn't promote the movie. 

[Vee]

When movies flop, people get cut. Zaslav insisted The Flash would succeed up to the day it released.

DC has had a dozen projects they swore they'd make with directors they claimed to love. None happened. Muschietti is as likely to be a casualty as anyone else.

 

[Toups]

So why make the announcement the day before the movie was being released?  Why not just wait to officially make the deal with Andy?  To me that says, Zaslav/Gunn both made the decision no matter what was going to happen at the box office.  They both loved The Flash, so they were both on board with it creatively. 

[BetterForgotten]

Not only did the ‘The Flash’ flop it actually delivered LOWER than what WB ultimately had to admit to what they were projecting. That is never good.

DC is a damaged brand and this is the third consecutive box office flop in a row that’s lost WB money. Yes, Gunn and Safran are rebooting the entire cinematic universe in 2025 anyway - but there is so much to overcome and these financial and critical losses are putting their reboot in a hard spot and not setting them up for success. Muschietti is ultimately the most expendable one if someone has to be a casualty for this expensive flop.

With its roaster of characters, DC should be a stronger brand than it is. Unfortunately, so many stupid decisions keep being made with this IP that continues to devalue it.

Edited June 18, 2023 by BetterForgotten

[Vee]

PR bluster. Trying to keep up the confidence and not turn audiences away in opening weekend thinking the movie is doomed. Happens all the time. Don't be shocked to see Muschietti quietly released in the next year.

As sad as it is for that cast and crew, it makes me get why Batgirl was shelved - Blue Beetle looks like a cable TV movie/straight to Netflix dump. If Batgirl looked the same neither should've come out IMO, at least not theatrically. What's sad is those are all great characters, especially Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle. Flash should've been shelved. And I don't give a shít about Aquaman and I suspect it will bomb too.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Vee

[Toups]

I disagree.  I don't think you make a commitment to a director to give confidence to a movie, especially to a movie that's not "yours" (Gunn's, Zaslav's).  But we'll see who will be right. 

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[Vee]

They didn't just do it to boost The Flash, but the announcement was timed to make it seem like they were super confident in that movie and to try to direct its box office. They may like Muschietti, but a flop is a flop and he would only be the millionth director to get quietly cut after a box office failure. His name is now attached to a particularly disastrous chapter in an already bad cinematic history for their franchise and unless It: Chapter Three miraculously materializes in the next few years it will be the first thing people think of re: Muschietti. He's a provisional name they can slot in there, but if the movie actually happens I don't think he'll be the one making it. This kind of revolving door stuff happens everyday.

[BetterForgotten]

When Gunn made this announcement, I don’t think he anticipated ‘The Flash’ would come in lower than what WB’s internal projections were.

The PR machine had been in full steam to promote ‘The Flash.’ Zaslav had been non-stop about that when the movie proved too costly for him to possibly forego its theatrical release and with Ezra’s issues preventing him from promoting the film. Hence why you saw stuff like Gunn suddenly proclaiming in the press that it was “the best comic book movie I’ve ever seen!” and why they paid Tom Cruise’s management team to say he saw the movie and thought it was one of the best films he’d seen in recent memory. 

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 The PR campaign was a disaster and all of it blew up in their faces as this is one of the costliest flops of the year.