But Nolan knows how to sell his work and what it takes to put people in the seats. Singer doesn't. He made a film he liked, riding on his inflated rep from the X-Men films and that it had been nearly 20 years since the big red S was on the big screen. That only took him to what Warner Bros. considers a break even point, and it is why he likely won't be back. It is a real sad state when Superman isn't even the most heroic person in his own film.
I'm not saying Nolan isn't a brilliant director, he absolutely is, but I think they both know how to put people in seats. Singer's career thus far has by and large been extremely successful. Everything else you've stated is entirely subjective, the mention of Superman Returns only breaking even is also only conjecture and best guess work.
Conjecture? I don't think so.
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=superman06.htm
The movie had a production budget of $270M and it's domestic take was just $200M. That doesn't include marketing costs for all those ads that were run for months before the film came out, which some estimates put at another $100M. The foreign market helped, but then you have to factor in costs for international distribution and advertisement. When you add all that up and pay the people what they have coming from the back-end, I believe it is more than just conjecture that
SR just broke even or actually lost money
in the eyes of Warner Bros. the company. Now, most studios really just consider domestic box office to determine if a movie is successful or not. And by that measurement,
Superman Returns was a dismal failure at the box office.
Singer made his fanfic of the continuation of Donner's Superman while Warner Bros. wanted a big blockbuster and spent the money to get it. They trusted him to do a lot with the money they gave him (
X-Men only cost $75M and brought in over $157M domestically, and
X2 was $110M spent/$215M domestic take) and he failed to deliver what they wanted. He disappointed Warner Bros. and he disappointed the fans WB was counting on for another $200M domestically. That's why he won't be back. And it is likely he won't have another film with a budget much larger than $100M since he cannot seem to break the ~$200M domestic take to justify a larger budget.
Hell, when you factor in ticket price increases
X2 sold far more tickets than
Superman Returns did. That's not conjecture. That is hard, cold numbers.
I realize you must have really liked
SR for all your attempts to shoot down my arguments and opinions. But just because YOU like something doesn't make it good or successful. Hell, I like
Smallville but I have no illusions that it is some great masterpiece of television. And look at all the
Firefly fans on this forum for another example. You can still like something and accept it being a failure either financially or in quality(or both). It's okay.