^ I wasn't avoiding your post. I forgot you made it and neglected to respond. I'll respond now though.
Did Batman Begins have staying power? It didn't gross over $400 million at the BO and audience reaction was mixed at the time. While critics liked it, no one was pom poming it like they were until after TDK came out, when the film was given a reappraisal by audiences. Neither of the Amazing Spider-Man hasn't crossed the Rami Spider-Man films in terms money made. Audiences were excited about the new direction for the film sure, but compared to even Spider-Man (2002), Amazing came up short. Not to say people were dissatisfied with the film but good audience feedback or thumbs up from critics does not translate to success. Money spent on tickets does. Contributing money to a film signifies audiences were satisfied with the product they viewed and pay to see it over and over.
You're missing the point.
Batman Begins was coming off the last film, Batman & Robin, which was a fiasco. So BB was about damage control, and it did it well. It didn't make $400 million, but the point is not that it did, but that is *SUSTAINED* its business through the course of its theatrical run because people *WERE* talking about how much better it was than the previous couple of Batman movies.
Amazing Spiderman, (a movie I'm not crazy about either, by the way, but again, we're just talking numbers) had a similar performance. It started solidly and *SUSTAINED* its business.
MOS, by comparison, had a HUGE opening, but it didn't sustain its business. It had massive drops following its opening weekend and did not *SUSTAIN* its business over its theatrical run, failing to meet and exceed $300 million.
As far as MOS not meeting expectations, what was the number it was supposed to hit? $800 million is a number I've seen thrown around. Although WB bar for it before release was $500 million worldwide. I can't speak on the drop off of the film but it did meet it's minimum threshhold of half a billion dollars. Maybe executives were over eager in their estimations of this new Superman movie. Expectation is the root of all disappointment after all.
I'm glad you realize that MOS did not meet expectations. I don't know where you got $800 million from, but I remember reading several boxoffice articles claiming that just like critical reaction seemed split down the middle, boxoffice analysts were similarly divisive: they didn't know whether to label MOS a hit or a miss. Yeah, it was a hit because it did over $290 million, but it was also a miss because it didn't capture Batman numbers, especially since it was clearly advertised with Nolan's involvement. All we know is that the movie did not sustain its boxoffice momentum over time and that's usually an indication that word-of-mouth is not very strong.
No, Superman should not always beat Captain America or Thor. If that were true the Superman Retuns (a film released 8 years ago) would have had big bigger BO gross than $391 million worldwide after 19 weeks. Successful films are the one who provide entertainment and enjoyment to the audience and inspire them to see them over and over again. Just putting Superman in a film does not guarantee success. Superman III and Superman IV (both with the beloved Christopher Reeve) are testament to that.
I'll say it again: Superman SHOULD ALWAYS beat Captain America or Thor. ALWAYS.
When a Superman movie is good, the crowds will come. When a Superman movie is bad or below par, they will stay away in droves, which has happened in varying degrees with ALL Superman movies in the last 30 years.
Notice how ALL the Superman movies you metioned had poor word-of-mouth?
Superman III did "good" but not great boxoffice numbers; Superman IV was a flop; Superman Returns and MOS had mixed word of mouth.
When a superhero movie is done right, more than likely, they will come. Look at Guardians of the Galaxy? TONS of good will and it's about to become the highest grossing film of the year so far despite having not one famous character.
And in MOS' case, pre-film buzz and trailers got people excited and they came in droves for that first weekend, but notice how it deflated fast after that?
It takes more than a name to get butts in seats. Marvel Studios, 20th Century Fox and Sony are doing just that. Their recent films GOTG, Capt America TWS, Thor TDW, ASM2, X-Men DOFP and The Wolverine show that you have to deliver something of substance and enjoyment to the audience. The aforementioned film are all very successful film and have bright futures ahead of them. Superman doesn't deserve to beat anyone just because of his star power. WB has to put effort in to making him a success, and not expecting everyone to flock to a movie just because Superman is in it. Bryan Singer made that mistake with SR.
I addressed this above. Some would argue that Zack Snyder made the same mistake =...
As for the announced BvS film. How is it not a MOS sequel? Amy Adams, Lawrence Fishburne, Diane Lane and other actors from MOS are returning for this sequel. They add Jeremy Irons and Ben Affleck as Bruce and Alfred and suddenly this is a Batman film? Lol
I've gone over WB wanting to have a Batman Superman film numerous times. The plan was for Nolan's Batman and Singer's Superman to team up in 2012. After each character had 2 solo films. But that plan was scrapped in 2008 after TDK and IM1 hit at the BO.
Last I checked, WB's list of upcoming features has MOS 2 on the list.
Logicially, that means BvS is not a direct sequel to MOS.
Who are these "many" you speak of with regards to the announced BvS film as damage control.
I read numerous articles in the months after the film's release that mentioned that. I can Google them and see if I can still turn them up after more than a year.
Is nothing positive with you? You make it seem like you don't want to have fun with these films and are just looking for thing to be pessimistic about.
I wasn't aware I was being negative. I thought we were just discussing boxoffice performance and numbers.
I personally didn't care for MOS. I didn't find that it was particularly good movie. I remember liking the first half, (despite that Krypton looked an awful like Geonosis in Attack of the Clones), but the movie fell apart in that second half.
