Today’s the day, folks.
After months – nay, years – of groundwork and cinematic preamble, Warner Bros. has now lifted the curtain on Justice League, though it’s fair to say that the Zack Snyder-directed blockbuster hasn’t received the rapturous applause that WB had hoped.
This week alone, Justice League has been labeled a “big, beautiful mess,” while the official Tomatometer only rubbed salt into the wound – 193 reviews later, and JL‘s score sits at a measly 37 percent at the time of writing. So, it clearly hasn’t been the four-quadrant success that was once promised, which is made all the more disappointing by Wonder Woman‘s triumph.
The Patty Jenkins origin story looked to have given the DC Extended Universe a much-needed shot in the arm back in June, but Justice League is living proof that thinly-drawn characters and chaotic action continue to dog the super-franchise. Not only that, but we’re now hearing that Snyder’s epic needs to clear $600 million in order to turn a profit.
Variety has the scoop, claiming that Justice League‘s production budget soared past the $250 million mark when accounting for the Joss Whedon-directed reshoots. Furthermore, when you factor worldwide marketing and distribution costs into the equation, the film must bring in “around $600 million from ticket sales alone,” along with the additional revenue from ancillaries in the vein of pay-TV and home entertainment, to be in the black.
“When you have iconic characters like this and a brand like ‘Justice League,’ and even the individual brands of those characters, there’s pressure on the movie to deliver,” said the film’s producer Chuck Roven. “We were really happy with the response creatively, critically and financially on ‘Wonder Woman.’ It would be great if this film could deliver some level of the same kind of response in those same areas. The fans are going to have to tell us.”
Indeed, Warner Bros. executives are said to be sweating over the movie’s opening weekend. Soon after the review embargo lifted, Justice League‘s projections were adjusted to $110 million, which is a notable dip from the $166 million opening of Batman V Superman. It’s also lower than Thor: Ragnarok‘s domestic bow ($127.7 million), which could lead to some rosy cheeks at WB, as one insider so aptly put it, “if a B character from Marvel shutdowns and outperforms the A team from DC, that’s an embarrassment. It’s going to be a stressful weekend for some [Warner] execs.”
Justice League is now playing in theaters across the globe, and let’s just say the critics have not been kind to Zack Snyder’s ensemble piece. In his damning review, our own Matt Donato deemed JL a “sloppy team-up film that doesn’t even take time to properly introduce pivotal members of its titular team, but when you’re playing a dangerous (also ill-advised) game of catch up, these are the risks.”