Geeks logo

Was Batman v. Superman a Financial Disaster?

Analyzing Batman v. Superman's box office numbers for the record

By SkylerPublished 5 years ago 6 min read
Like

At first Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice enjoyed a wonderful opening weekend but then suffered a 69% drop, which is so bad, so terrible in cinema history that this was built up as WB’s own 'Great Depression'. Do you recall the doomsday prophets with things like "the movie needs to make over $800 million or even $1 billion just to break even"? You could find plenty of these claims in the first month and a half of the film’s release. Yet, are they true? Let us forget the critical side of this film and look purely at its economics. Let's look at a few other movies to see in comparison, if Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is the financial disaster many claim it to be. Finally, let's find out if Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was a box office flop or made a profit for Warner Bros.

Estimates and Pre-Sales

Estimates and pre-sales leading up to the film were huge, where its pre-ticket sales outpaced that of hugely successful films, such as The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers & Furious 7. According to Fandango at the time, BvS was its top pre-selling superhero film. The film itself made over $27 million on Thursday night preview screens across the United States of its 3,800 theater count. Warner Bros. projected a rather conservative number of $110 million opening compared to other higher numbers and predictions. Estimates for the foreign market opening were around the $200 million range according to some analysts. In the end, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice would bring us an expected $300–$340 million worldwide opening. No matter how you dice it–the film was ready to serve a huge portion for people, but how did it fare?

The Second Weekend Drop

This is when the apocalypse begins for most people, when the second weekend drop came. Yes, that horrible 69 percent drop did not look very good, I will admit. This comes from the fact that there are two variables they do not take into consideration, so this needs to be put into context.

One, the film opened on Easter weekend, and on average, holidays can lead to increased ticket sales. Second, they do take into account the Thursday night preview screenings in opening weekends. This is odd, given that Thursday is not part of the weekend–at all! In addition, the old Thursday night midnight screenings are a thing of the past, when now you can see the film as early as seven PM on average. Therefore, the number is inflated, making the second weekend drop harder, even though the next weekend does not count what is considered the first Thursday now. A second weekend drop of 63 percent would be the amount had we not factored in Thursday night.

Now it must be stated there are films with significantly worse second weekend drops. Actually, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice does not even make the top 100 when it comes to that list. As far as big franchise films go that did worse than Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, they include from worst to the absolute worst–The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Alien: Covenant, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Paranormal Activity 4, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Predators, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Friday the 13th (2009), and I think I will end it there for now.

Sure, you and many other critics may despise the Twilight franchise, but no one is going to start a debate on rather it was a financial success or not. With Hellboy II on the list, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is actually not the worst comic book movie for second weekend drops. There are other key franchises on here you can see, such as Friday The 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, and more to show franchise name alone is not everything. Then take another look and you will see Harry Potter on there. That is correct–a film that no one will deny was a success all across the board both financially and critically had a 72 percent drop. In the end, a second weekend drop does not account for everything.

Total Revenue for 'Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice'

Near the end of the run Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief Jeff Goldstein said "This is a fantastic result, by any measure." After this statement the film churned out an extra $10 million, by the end of the film’s run it made over $330.3 million domestically ,and over $542.9 million internationally for a worldwide gross of $873.2 million. Hence, it is in the top of the DC echelons of worldwide box office runs. Domestically and worldwide it is the third best-selling Batman film.

It was the sixth best-selling video title sold in 2016, selling over 3.5 combined million units for a total revenue of $73.9 million. It was the #1 best-selling DVD for four weeks and the #1 best-selling Blu-ray for three weeks. Now to date the film has made over $78.3 million in revenue, with over $22.3 million of that coming from DVDs and over $56 million of that coming from Blu-Rays.

Believe it or not this beats some MCU video releases such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2,Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp. It loses to Captain America: Civil War by barely a million. This video juggernaut crushes others amongst the competition, such as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Sony. Meanwhile, Fox's X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Apocalypse rank under as well. Understandably it does not pull off Avengers or The Dark Knight numbers for home video, but keep in mind some of these videos have been out longer than Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and cannot out do it, even with better reviews it would appear.

Conclusion on 'Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice'

Now sure this all sounds great in theory, but you are wondering if the film truly was a flop like many beckon it to be. The clear answer is a resounding no. Warner Bros. turned a profit of $105.7 million from Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. This may sound odd given the total worldwide box office gross, and its production budget of $250 million. You must keep in mind, there are other hidden costs like marketing, residuals, interests, over-heads etc. Yes, there are other superhero films, especially those over at the MCU raking in much more in profits. Yet, before you drift off and table this as a minor success, I would argue this means a lot. We have other superhero films like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past making smaller profits, in fact they do not even crack $100 million. The former was such a disappointment that it called for a reboot.

Meanwhile, Man of Steel had a production budget only $25 million less than Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but in the end turned a profit of $42.7 million for Warner Bros. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice one-upped Man of Steel completely. This shows the movie is capable of actual growth, over 30 percent growth in fact. Notice Warner Bros. did not immediately call for a reboot, nor kick off its director. Batman Returns did not out-do its 1989 predecessor, so Warner Bros. showed Tim Burton the door. Batman & Robin failed to beat Batman Forever, and well you know the ending of that story. Both cases the sequel made roughly 30 percent less than the predecessor, a complete reversal in the case of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Yes, this $105.7 million is not the $200 million or $300 million that Disney produces, but it is still money in the bank now.

movie
Like

About the Creator

Skyler

Full-time worker, history student and an avid comic book nerd.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.