When Marvel and WB both picked May 6, 2916 as a release date—Marvel aggressively moving Captain America 3 to the same date as the long expected Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice—we all knew someone would blink.
And it was WB. They have just announced that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will move up to March 25, 2016.
Spring openings used to be less prestigious than summer, but are now no knock on a movie’s earning potential. Still, symbolically, pulling out of the lucrative summer season is a little bit of a retreat on the WB’s part.
BUT, proving that they have actually learned something from Marvel Studios success, they also announced a thrilling slate of nine brand new….release dates.
Aug. 8, 2016,
June 23, 2017
Nov. 17, 2017
March 23, 2018
July 27, 2018
April 5, 2019
June 14, 2019
April 3, 2020
June 19, 2020
SO THERE. You’ll recall that Marvel released a similar list of release dates with no movies. That’s one and a half World Cups and THREE Olympics and TWO presidential elections worth of WB superhero movies! Not that we have a clue what any of them are, but I hear April 3, 2020 will be Metal Men, and June 19, 2020 will be Power Girl.
Latino Review actually has a round up of all the rumoured movie dates from Marvel, DC and Fox. Here’s what we KNOW:
May 2015 – Age of Ultron
June 2015 – Fantastic Four
July 2015 – Ant-Man
March 2016 – Batman v Superman
May 2016 – Captain America 3
May 2016 – X-Men: Apocalypse
July 2016 – Dr. Strange (implied)
After that things get…mysterious.
So that’s where we’re at right now. The superhero movie business is now so lucrative and frnatic that people are competing to see who can announce the most DATES without actually announcing movies.
As a reminder, it’s New Comic Day and you can find many fine books at your local comics seller, such as the incredible How the World Was by Alan Guibert. One of the most touching memoirs I’ve read in a long time.
I’m not confident that Batman V Superman will be any good, but I’m confident that WB will be able to brag that the movie opened with the highest selling March of all time. It’s hard to say that May-August with a mediocre movie.
Go Supermern, Go!
Announcing distant release dates in the same press release where you admit that your previously announced release date was just posturing … doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.
Announcing a release schedule that doesn’t commit to any of the subjects of the movies … doesn’t demonstrate a lot of confidence.
Batman vs. Superman should have come out this summer with JLA slated to come out the same year as Avengers 2. I don’t understand how a company as big as Warner Bros couldn’t fast track their super-hero film universe after Avengers and Iron Man 3 both raked in a billion dollars.
Wha? 2916?!? Damn, why hype the movies then. We will all be dead. Guess we can’t see Captain America 3.
Danger, Will Robinson…the super hero movie arms race has officially begun. Try to hide your wallets and cancel your plans to die! DC and Marvel plan to own us until at least 2020 (and beyond).
Guess DC blinked
That Guibert book is really good. I’m not even the biggest fan of the previous works of his that were so highly praised, but that one I thought was well-observed and very touching. It provides insight into a world that’s now fading from direct memory as time rolls on, and the cumulative effect is more significant than many of the very good scenes.
but I hear April 3, 2020 will be Metal Men, and June 19, 2020 will be Power Girl.
That’s awesome! I mean, it sucks that I’ll need to wait six years to see a Power Girl movie and a Metal Men movie, but it’s good to hear that …
What’s that? It’s a joke?
CURSE YOU HEIDI MACDONALD! *shakes fist*
The Big Hero 6 preview I saw this weekend is why I’m kind of sad that Disney doesn’t own DC instead of Marvel. Could you imagine a Metal Men movie done Disney style? I can, and it makes me sad that we’ll never see it.
So:
Nikki Finke’s rumor:
May 2016 – Batman v Superman
July 2016 – Shazam
Xmas 2016 – Sandman
May 2017 – Justice League
July 2017 – Wonder Woman
Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up
May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2
The new schedule
3/25/2016 BvS:DoJ
Aug. 8, 2016
June 23, 2017
Nov. 17, 2017
March 23, 2018
July 27, 2018
April 5, 2019
June 14, 2019
April 3, 2020
June 19, 2020
So two years until the next movie, Aug 2016. DC will have to announce something at NYCC, then make a casting announcement in the Spring. And then people can start comparing it to GotG.
I’ll update the scorecard later.
A Pixar done Metal Men movie could be amazing.
My worry is, DC coming in, that the superhero market will be overloaded, may even break. There’s also Fox, Sony, all desperate to copy Marvel’s success. Will audiences be able to handle so many movies? This year we had 4 (all Marvel characters). Can they withstand more?
It will all depend on the quality of the DC films. If Supes vs. Bats turns out to be disappointing (critically and/or financially) or the JL movieis underwhelming, I wouldn’t expect to see those later films. This seems scattershot to me – like Warners is just nervously REacting to Disney/Marvel instead of PROacting. Is there a PLAN??
While watching Thanos in GotG, I couldn’t help but think how far DC is in the hole here.
– They are going to make Darkseid their big bad, causing easy comparisons to Thanos
– All the visual innovation they could have had with Flash will have been used twice with two on-screen versions of Quicksilver
– Deathlok beat Cyborg to the screen
Man of Steel was visually interesting but incredibly morose. Batman is kind of their ace in the hole, but the on-screen version they have had for the past decade doesn’t seem to play or mix well with others, so they’d have to change the formula. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman could provide some strong differentiation, but it’s really hard to imagine a scenario where they’d be able to get a leg up on Marvel.
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