WBD Can’t Succeed By Making Superhero Movies Just ‘For The Fans’

With Warner Bros. Discovery’s superhero release Black Adam grossing $67 million domestic and $70 million international at the box office this weekend, the marketing — led by the film’s superstar Dwayne Johnson — has focused on the message “we’re listening to the fans.” But fandom is divided on what they want, and these films have to be made for the mainstream global audiences if they are going to achieve blockbuster success needed to compete with Marvel Studios. WBD simply cannot succeed in the longterm by making and marketing these movies as just “for the fans.”

WBD’s new leadership is attempting the upteenth “course correction” for their DCEU properties, and many of their decisions thus far have been controversial if not downright shocking and perplexing. This has caused further division in a fandom already split into multiple factions that are often hostile to one another (too often, and usually for too simplistic and too selfish of reasons).

(Spoiler Warning: From here, I’ll be mentioning various things about DCEU projects that you may or may not be aware of, including some things about Black Adam that I’d normally not mention on opening weekend, but the marketing and Johnson himself have been so constantly hinting and winking about it that it’s a bit silly to treat it as a secret or spoiler at this point — but still, here’s your spoiler warning!)

Black Adam wound up an amalgamation of elements intended to appeal in nominal ways to multiple of these factions, yet in ways that also seem likely to alienate many of those same fandoms in other ways. And regardless of what any one of us personally thinks or prefers about this movie or others in the DC stable, they need to focus less on selling their films as “for the fans” and more toward appealing to what mainstream audiences want and respond to most from DCEU movies.

Black Adam’s opening weekend numbers are healthy, despite mostly negative reviews (it’s at 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, with just 29% from Top Critics) and a modest B+ Cinemascore from audiences. The film has a mostly open field ahead for three weeks, allowing it time to boost its grosses before the Marvel superhero sequel Wakanda Forever arrives to rule the box office for the rest of November and into mid-December, when Avatar: The Way of Water will defy all naysayers by becoming another of the highest-grossing films of all time and probably setting endless box office records.

The point is, Black Adam has a decent chance to top $500+ million if it has high-end weekly holds and bigger-than-expected weekday performances, before the competition sucks all of the oxygen out of the box office for everybody else. But if the hardcore fanbase showed up en mass for opening weekend and if the modest word of mouth doesn’t help drive higher attendance and repeat business for the next few weeks, then Black Adam might wind up closer to the $400+ million range.

And the fact is, with a nearly $200 million budget and $100+ million in marketing, this film needs to reach at least $650+ million to cover its costs (studios only get about 40% of global ticket sales, sometimes less). While a $400-500 million result would look like a respectable result for an unknown superhero origin story released in October, it might’ve had a better chance at higher box office returns if it were marketed less as “for the fans” and more as “for everybody” (especially with such a relatively diverse cast compared to many other superhero movies).

I’m not trying to be a doomsayer here, I’m simply trying to make the point that in the final weeks Black Adam focused a lot of the promotion on the notion of being made “for the fans” and “listening to the fans,” and pushing the wink-wink hint-hint revelation that Henry Cavill’s Superman makes an appearance and signals a “return” of the actor and cinematic iteration beloved by a portion of fandom. But I don’t think average moviegoers frankly cared that much about this, so the media coverage and social media narratives about Cavill, Superman, and “for the fans” was a distraction from focusing mainstream audience attention on other factors that could’ve been more beneficial for Black Adam’s opening weekend and longterm financial health.

Meanwhile, the way Cavill’s return was treated probably didn’t actually have the sort of appeal WBD intended — especially in any longterm sense that would help drive repeat business and greater enthusiasm among fans the marketing and media attentino focused on.

Consider: Black Adam was completed under Walter Hamada’s leadership, yet with Hamada being unceremoniously forced out of the studio, the project was forced to include Cavill’s Superman cameo — which will please Cavill fans, many of whom are also fans of Zack Snyder’s earlier setup movies and plans for the DCEU. On the other hand, Cavill and others have been vocal about taking a different approach to Superman than Zack Snyder took in earlier films, and the cameo in Black Adam eschews the modern Superman theme music created by Hans Zimmer in 2013’s Man of Steel, instead borrowing John Williams’ theme for the 1978 Superman movie.

So anyone who expects or wants Cavill’s return to herald a revival of Zack Snyder’s plans and approach is mistaken and bound to be disappointed, as is anyone who was expecting or wanting the latest supposed “course correction” to offer a new Superman or otherwise move on from what the DCEU offered previously. Which could leave the cameo feeling like a half-measure to these fans, trying to appease a portion of fans who constantly express anger at WB, yet unwilling to go all-in on either a new direction or a full revival. It also ignores the more important question, “Is this something average mainstream moviegoers seem to want, will it excite and please them?”

People can of course have the opinion that Cavill made a good Superman, deservers another chance at the character, and/or that he so far hasn’t been utilized in ways they personally prefer. You could argue it’s worth bringing Cavill back with nods at what came before within a tweaked approach pursuing a new vision for his future.

For that to work, however, there needs to actually be a vision for the future, and the studio and filmmakers need to understand what broader audiences want and expect from the character and the larger DCEU. Crucially, this requires focusing on the right audience in the first place — and fans may not want to hear this, but the fact is the audience whose opinions and desires matter most for a successful revival of Superman are mainstream moviegoers, not this or that narrow corner of fandom.

Side note: If things had gone differently in the past and WB had delayed release of Justice League in 2016 to let Zack Snyder finish his vision for the project, we could’ve had Zack Snyder’s Justice League as the official theatrical release — ideally broken into two two-hour parts (maybe split at the point Steppenwolf realizes the Anti-Life Equation is on Earth) released in summer and Christmas the same year to maximize box office and media attention — which would’ve gotten much better reviews and might’ve solidified broader mainstream audience enthusiasm for the DCEU and finally made Cavill’s Superman widely popular. Everything would’ve been different then. But anyway, back to the way things are…

The DCEU needs a plan, and needs leadership that stops stepping all over the plans. Fans who want a successful, good DCEU need to recognize the need for plans, even if they don’t always agree with every aspect of those plans. And fans need to admit that the plans cannot simply appeal to existing fans, but rather appeal to mainstream audiences in ways that turn those audiences into new fans.

Comic book fandom is important and helps promote these movies, and their enthusiasm aids with viral marketing and other promotion to increase a film’s footprint on social media. They also turn out on opening weekend and push box office higher. So I’m not at all saying fans don’t matter. But fans cannot be treated as the only audience who matters, and can’t think of themselves that way. Fans should recognize their role within the larger global audience for these films, instead of insisting their personal fan preferences need to drive all of the decisions and productions of superhero movies (or any movies with a large vocal fandom).

Black Adam was promoted as (and the final marketing and social media push focused on) being made for the fans, based on listening to the fans, and bringing back something fans particularly demanded. But if Black Adam performs modestly at the lower end of expectations, then what happens? Will WBD still forge ahead with making decisions and changes to keep trying to appease fandom? (I say this as someone who personally liked the previous Cavill Superman appearances and the movies he starred in, remember.)

I’m not here to rain on any fans’ parades or to discount Cavill’s return, nor to suggest Black Adam isn’t a good or fun movie enjoyed by many fans and other viewers (you can read Scott Mendelson’s review for Forbes here). My point is simply to speak to the notion of marketing this film or others as “for the fans,” and to say that claiming to “listen to the fans” when deciding what to do and how to do it is not the recipe for success that fans or the marketing/promotion suggest it is. Sometimes what makes fans happiest overlaps with what makes most audiences happy, and results in good storytelling that is also popular and financially successful. Other times not. And the commitment needs to be to good storytelling and popular success, not simply resorting to saying “we made this for the fans.”

More to the point, Black Adam’s attempt to use “for the fans” and the Cavill cameo to get fans excited and generate more attention wasn’t inherently a bad idea, but rather something that would’ve worked better as a viral marketing push and something for Johnson to talk about on and after opening weekend, not for days and weeks leading up to the debut.

Instead, it probably would’ve benefited more from pushing messaging about the film’s creation of the Justice Society, that’s it’s build toward Black Adam fighting Shazam, and the overall idea that this film was a key part in moving the DCEU toward a new phase leading into Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom — as well as confirmation that more The Batman spinoffs and sequels are on the way, as are a Wonder Woman sequel and new Superman movie (without pushing Cavill’s return yet, saving that cameo reveal for opening weekend and afterward to drive attention in weeks #2 and #3 of Black Adam’s release). Using Black Adam not only as a platform to highlight Dwayne Johnson’s introduction into superhero cinema but also to highlight all of these other upcoming DCEU projects — as well as the Joker sequel — could’ve worked better to get broader mainstream interest in the film and the DCEU overall.

Alternately, instead of just a cameo, perhaps Black Adam could’ve included a few additional scenes of Superman and Clark Kent hearing about Black Adam’s arrival, Amanda Waller reaching out to him, and then Superman showing up to talk to Black Adam at the end. Then the marketing and final push could’ve included scenes of Superman being part of the film as more than a cameo, making him a true value-added element. If Cavill and Superman were thought to have appeal worth using to push the film in the final weeks, then it probably made more sense to go all-in and not do a half-hearted “keep it secret but also leak it” approach focused on “this is just for the fans.”

Which all gets back to the main point that it’s important not to let media focus, social media footprint, and promotion become dominated by talk and speculation about “what fans want” and “making it for fans.” Average mainstream moviegoers don’t care about that and will tune out pretty fast when that’s how you promote your pictures, and whatever bump you get from fans on opening weekend will not make up for the broader sustained loss of attention that comes from failure to use media attention, social footprint, and other promotion to appeal to the rest of the moviegoing public.

Whatever comes next for the DCEU — and much of it does sound appealing to me personally, including Matt Reeves’ plans for his expanding Batman universe, James Gunn’s plans for more Peacemaker and other DC project (Green Lantern Corps, perhaps?), and Patty Jenkins’ plans for another Wonder Woman film — WBD can only achieve their longterm desire to achieve MCU-level success if they listen to, appeal to, and promote to broader mainstream audiences around the world, not just existing DC fandom. And WBD needs leadership over the DC properties who recognize this truth and commit to living up to it. Otherwise, we’ll be right back here in a couple of years or so, having the same conversations again, just like we have for the past too-many years.