-sequence-
There was a time…above everything, before everything. Everything was perfect then, as absolute as a diamond.
But everything in the world will eventually fall, and whatever falls… will never return.
In my dreams, it takes me flying towards the light.
A beautiful lie. ─Bruce. Wayne
Marvel has spent several years launching independent movies for each of its heroes, regardless of whether some of them did not do well at the box office. In short, the goal is to gather enough people to form an MCU as the Avengers.
The great success of this formula made Warner anxious. He had a more famous character than Marvel, so he also started the DCEU!
As mentioned in the previous article, due to the inclusion of BVS, the film received mixed reviews, and then Suicide Squad was adapted and Wonder Woman was added. Since the above two films still have the residual power of the DCEU directed by Cha, the box office is very good! But Warner seems to think that it was only through his intervention that he achieved such results, but he forgot about the achievements of MOS and BVS.
One of the DCEU Sinners Geoff Johns
At that time, there was a character in the DC Comics Department named Geoff Johns. He and Marvel’s Kevin Feige both came from the production company of Richard Donner, the director of Superman movies in the 1970s. Kevin Feige later became the leader of Marvel Studios, while Johns joined DC all the way. They share similar backgrounds, but have completely different achievements in the film and television universes of different camps.
Of course, Geoff Johns is envious of Kevin Feige’s achievements. Of course he also wants to have the status and achievements of Kevin Feige in DC movies.
Geoff Johns himself has been the chief creative officer (CCO) of DC Entertainment since 2010 (and president since 2016 until he stepped down from executive duties in 2018.)
He has participated as a producer or executive producer in important works such as “Green Lantern” (2011), “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016), “Suicide Squad”, “Wonder Woman”, and “Justice League” (2017).
Because of the BVS incident, Warner established DC Films, co-led by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, in an attempt to unify the direction of the film universe and restore its reputation.
That’s why “Suicide Squad” and “Wonder Woman” had to revise the scripts and re-edit them. In short, everything was focused on fun and the dark style was reduced.
By “Justice League,” Warners had almost reached the point of loathing Chuck Snyder. There were always a lot of difficulties during filming! Extensive revisions to the script made the filming of “Justice League” chaotic and angered screenwriter Chris Terrio. The description of Superman being resurrected and wearing black clothes was originally a classic description in the original comics. But Geoff Johns, like Warner executives, did not want the movie to be too dark, and wanted bright colors even on the screen, and rejected the arrangement of Superman wearing a black uniform.
However, Director Cha was not discouraged. Instead, he planned to color Superman’s red, blue, and yellow set back to black and silver when he has the opportunity to release a director’s cut in the future. (“Black/Silver Recovery Suit”, this is a comic design from 1992.)
Director Cha and the visual effects team decided to use the traditional red and blue uniforms during filming, but specially adjusted its color tone and reflective effects to make it easier to convert it to black and silver in post-production work (through color correction).
Geoff Johns has obviously expressed his dissatisfaction with director Cha, who has been asking “Justice League” to add more humorous plots and a lighter story tone.
Director Cha has always taken these characters, such as Shinhwa, very seriously. And I hope that they as characters fully embody and actually exist in their world. It would not be cool at all to consume them for fun. Director Zha’s vision is to embody this complete universe in flesh and blood.
Director Cha knows that Marvel’s popular action comedies have reached their highest peak, and trying to copy them will only be delusional; DC has an epic mythology, and he wants to embark on an extraordinary journey with his own characteristics! But in the entire high-level world, he is the only one who has such a request…
At this time, Director Cha’s adopted daughter “Qiu” committed suicide, which gave him a very heavy blow…
Director Cha originally wanted to use work to anesthetize the pain, but in the studio he had to fight with Warner executives every day… which made him exhausted physically and mentally…
Director Cha thought it was okay to want more joy and humor, and he would be happy to shoot it if the higher-ups had ideas. After searching for several candidates, we found Whedon, the director of Marvel’s Avengers Episodes 1 and 2.
No matter how stupid Director Cha is, he still knows that he has been deprived of power. At this time, he has completed shooting all the shots, and only post-processing special effects and other other work is left. Although he loves comic book movies, his family always comes first. At this time, he and his family need their companionship to comfort their souls. He no longer has the energy to spend time with Warner’s senior management, so Chuck decided to voluntarily resign as director…
And Warner took advantage of the situation and offered to let Whedon take over the real power…
Before the release of “Justice League” in 2017, Warner announced that Chuck had resigned as director due to the death of his beloved daughter, and recommended Whedon to take over. But the studio is willing to wait for Chuck to return, but Chuck said that “Justice League” is about the resurrection of Superman, and it will only make sense if it is released on Easter.
The members of the Justice League were also happy at the promotional event, and it seemed that there was nothing wrong with it, but no one mentioned Chuck, and even the behind-the-scenes production specials released on the disc did not see the shadow of Chuck… which is intriguing.
After the movie was released, everyone seemed to be full of praise because it was written by Marvel’s Whedon, but Chuck fans thought it was weird… it was like a Seam Monster movie.
The day after it was released, a CG of The Flash rescuing Alice was leaked online, as well as some storyboards that could not be seen in the feature film. Everyone seems to know what’s going on… This movie has been interfered with by Warner again…
Doubts began to appear on the Internet, and even Chuck’s son expressed his opinion on the film on social media, saying to the effect: “Although the film is good-looking, due to Warner’s interference and the addition of forced humor, the work has lost its original integrity. What he is most dissatisfied with is that the events that should have taken time to elaborate turned out to be very sloppy; but overall it is still interesting and worth recommending.”
Screenwriter Chris Terrio expressed strong dissatisfaction, calling it “an act of vandalism.” He believed that this version resulted in a confusing narrative due to studio interference and excessive cuts. He expressed his wish to have his name removed, reflecting his disappointment with the final film.
Internet viewers began to find some obvious traces of editing in the film, such as Ben Affleck’s face and body, which were normal at one time and slightly fat at another, which must be evidence of reshoots. (Because after the small class shoot, I didn’t keep myself in shape and got fat! I didn’t expect to be called back for reshoots)
The most bizarre thing about the film is Superman’s beard, because during the required reshoots, Henry had already gone to shoot “Mission: Impossible: Fallout”. The character has a beard, so Warner asked Paramount if Henry could shave his beard to facilitate their reshoots. “Mission: Impossible: Fallout” had a solution with a fake beard.
This plan was rejected by Paramount, so Henry shot all the reshoots of Heng Chao with a beard. The effect is very strange. If it is handled well, no one will notice it. Some of the effects that are handled poorly will not be magnified, but when Superman smiles, it is really difficult for people to look at him directly. Why would a large company fail so badly when dealing with a beard? The answer is of course “rush”!
But Warner, a large company that specializes in producing large-scale productions, should not allow this kind of problem to occur even if it is in a hurry. But is the truth, as officials claim, that Chuck Snyder is rushing the film in hopes of an Easter release?
The truth is that Warner CEO Kevin Tsujihara and new president Toby Emmerich are facing merger negotiations with AT&T (announced in 2016 and expected to be completed in 2018).
Postponing the release of JL Tsujihara and Toby are worried that the delay to 2018 will reshuffle their positions due to mergers and acquisitions, and they will lose their year-end bonuses. And the top management wholeheartedly believes that JL, which has been improved by Geoff Johns and others, will be as profitable as a Marvel movie! No expense was spared at the expense of US$25 million for Whedon to reshoot.
As a result, the film’s final global box office was only 661 million U.S. dollars, which was not as good as MOS’s 670.1 million and BVS’s 874.3 million. However, Warners did not learn a lesson from this incident. They concluded that the assembled hero universe was one of the curses. In the future, Aquaman and Wonder Woman should rely less on the shared universe.
However, Aquaman is the highest-grossing movie in the DC Universe with a global box office of 1.152 billion US dollars! Warner also believes that they made the right choice in deliberately not mentioning other heroes in the movie, because in the original script Atlantis will eventually attack the mainland, and other heroes such as Batman and others will help.
However, I personally feel that before the movie was released, James Wan actually used Director Cha to promote it and stabilize the morale of the army. He publicly said that after making the rough film, he asked Warner executives to show it to Director Cha first, and Director Cha confirmed the quality and approved it. In addition, reports also said that James Wan cut many funny scenes requested by Warner, which gave confidence to the audience who had lost confidence in the previous films due to Warner’s interference.
The campaign to ReleaseTheSnyderCut begins!
A Chinese girl, Fiona Zheng (Zheng Fei), became a fan of Director Cha after watching “Man of Steel” in 2013, and later also followed the production and release of “Batman v Superman”. After “Justice League” was released in 2017, she noticed that the version was very different from Snyder’s previous vision. She began to interact with director Cha himself at Vero and asked international fans about the “Snyder version.”
Fiona debuted the hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut on Twitter and called on other fans to retweet it.
The hashtag became widely used because the international Chuck fan community quickly followed suit and turned it into a unifying slogan.
In the early days, a small number of fans reposted behind-the-scenes stills and comparison pictures on social platforms, using #ReleaseTheSnyderCut as a unified hashtag. Later, foreign fan organizations (such as The Nerd Queens, Film Junkie, etc.) joined the promotion, and combined with charity fundraising (especially support for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention AFSP) to give the movement exposure in the media.
On November 17, 2019, the movement reached its peak – Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Ray Fisher and other leading actors tweeted simultaneously, officially publicly supporting the Snyder Cut.
However, Warner remained unmoved. First of all, Hamada, the then Warner executive, said: “The Snyder Cut branch is (cul-de-sac, a dead end).”
He also said that DC will adopt a multiverse strategy in the future. Different movies can have their own story lines and do not necessarily have to continue Snyder’s main line.
In fact, at that time, Hamada only wanted to retain the three characters of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and The Flash, as well as the two pillars of DC, Batman and Superman. He wanted to find someone to replace them. At that time, Hamada had already decided to replace Ben Affleck (Ben Affleck) with 1989’s Batman in The Flash. As for Superman, Warner thought about a black Superman and announced it on Henry’s birthday. Henry was so angry that he quit following Warner’s Twitter account.
Thanks to Warner’s miraculous operation, Batman and Superman turned out to be old versions, and it turned out that the mystery had been hidden for a long time…
Maybe you will be wondering? Why would Warner want to replace these two leading actors Xiaoban and Henry? Let’s talk about Ben Affleck first. The common theory is that Ben Affleck quit due to divorce and alcohol problems. This is also Ben Affleck’s official statement.
Xiao Ben officially announced his resignation from playing Batman in 2019. At that time, he said, “Am I no longer BATMAN?” He deliberately added a question mark!
Ben is very passionate about the character of Batman. The DCEU Deathstroke audition video that was deliberately leaked was actually filmed and leaked by Ben himself because he was too excited! (Revealed by Deathstroke actor)
Who would have expected that Director Cha would be forced to leave? (Although technically a voluntary withdrawal) Despite the filming scenes but sued secondary to return to reshoot? Xiaoban respects Director Cha for his ability to turn everyone’s disapproval of his role as Batman into “my favorite Batman”! Whedon not only had to remake it, but also revise the original script. To know that the initial small class was afraid of receiving a bad film, to find their own team of screenwriter Chris Terrio to assist, however Chris Terrio was also angered by Whedon! Xiaoban was forced to reshoot some funny shots due to contract, such as the fighting Batman at the beginning of the 2017 version of JL will be slipped by the stagnant water! (Warner also couldn’t stand the eyes cut away) There’s also the Marvel-style comedy of being asked by Superman, “Will you leave blood?” Then he was wrestled with his leg and said he was bleeding.
Whedon’s overbearing behavior during reshoots was first exposed by Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg. He accused Whedon of having a bad attitude during the reshoots and changed a lot of Cyborg’s plot, significantly reducing the role of the character. He also named Warner executives Geoff Johns and Jon Berg as “enabling” Whedon’s behavior at the time. He has emphasized in interviews and social media many times that this is a systemic problem for Warner Bros., not just Whedon personally. He even claimed that he suffered retaliation, including having his scene completely deleted from the script of “The Flash”.
What’s interesting is that the contract at that time was to cooperate with the publicity. Ray Fisher took back his praise of Whedon at Comic-Con in 2017 on Twitter and accused him of “evil, abusive, unprofessional and completely unacceptable behavior”!
Someone broke the news, and naturally someone came forward! Among Whedon’s most vicious enemies is Gadot, who accused Whedon of verbally threatening her during reshoots, including suggesting “I can make you look stupid” or “ruin your career.”
Forcing her to film some actions and lines that she felt were sexually suggestive or disrespectful of the character (especially the scene where The Flash fell onto WW’s chest. The original version was not shot by Gadot herself, but was done with a stunt double).
Whedon denied most of the accusations in the interview, claiming that Gadot misunderstood his English because her native language is Hebrew. Gadot responded: “I completely understand the situation at the time, and I will not accept what he is saying now.”
Although Warner stated that it would launch an investigation, it ended up being nothing. As a result, Ray Fisher, who was the loudest, broke off his relationship with Warner/DC and was excluded from subsequent DCEU projects.
Whedon’s reputation took a hit, and actors from other productions (such as Charisma Carpenter of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) came forward to support Ray Fisher’s accusations. Some of Whedon’s past “deeds” while filming American TV series were also exposed by the victims one after another.
Although Whedon himself was kicked out by Warner, the source of the harm to the DCEU has spread throughout Warner. Because Xiaoban was under too much pressure, he decided to quit the director’s position and concentrate on playing Batman. Warner hired Matt Reeves to serve as director. On February 23, 2017, Warner officially announced that Matt Reeves would direct and produce “The Batman”! On February 24, 2017, Xiaoban also welcomed Matt Reeves on social media and wrote “Welcome to the Batcave, @MattReevesLA” (Welcome to the Batcave Matt Reeves)
However, at the end of February, Matt Reeves revealed to the media that he wanted to make a “younger version of Batman in the detective’s growth period” instead of continuing the middle-aged version of Ben Affleck in the DCEU.
In 2019, a reporter secretly photographed two Warner executives negotiating with Ben Affleck in a car. Not long after, on January 30, 2019, he personally confirmed in an interview with “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that he would not star in “The Batman” starring him again, and “passed over” the cape and mask to Robert Pattinson.
Deal with Batman and then Superman
After taking care of Batman, the other one is Superman! Henry originally signed a 3 mainline movie contract (“Man of Steel”, BvS, JL) + optional additional appearance clauses. After “JL” in 2017, his main contract was completed, but there were still add-ons that would allow Warners to bring him back under certain conditions, such as a cameo appearance as Superman in another character’s movie. However, these add-on contracts are not indefinite and are usually time-limited (use within a few years).
In negotiations with Warners in 2018, Warners wanted him to contribute to Shazam! (Shazam!, 2019) had a cameo in the closing scene, but negotiations broke down and Henry wanted to officially renew his contract and film an official Superman sequel, not just an Easter egg or a one-off cameo. He stated in the interview: “The character of Superman deserves a more meaningful story, not just a brief appearance.”
Some people say that Henry and Ben are also on Chuck’s team and respect Chuck, so Henry and Ben are not interested in Warner’s approach of “restarting/rewriting Snyder’s settings”. They’d rather stay out of it than give a short cameo or not continue Snyder’s version of the character’s arc.
Warner executives (especially during Hamada’s time) were disgusted with the “hardness of negotiations” of Chuck’s core team and the pressure from Chuck’s fan base.
For the sake of face, this prompted them to be more inclined to use actors who can match the new direction.
After the theatrical release of “Justice League” in 2017, fans began pushing for #ReleaseTheSnyderCut on the community. Kevin Tsujihara (then CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures) insisted in an interview with the media that “there is no Snyder Cut, and the only official version released in 2017”, denying the existence of this film. (This is also a phrase that anti-Chuck haters like to quote) Hamada also said that SnyderCut is just a “dead end”!
Dawn of Justice by SnyderCut
However, after the merger of A&AT and Warner, things took a turn. Jason Kilar (who became WarnerMedia CEO in 2020) is considered one of the executives most interested in and most active in pushing for the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. He is a strong supporter of the streaming platform HBO Max and believes that the Snyder Cut can be an important topic to attract users. Bob Greenblatt (then chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment) was also one of the people named in support of the Snyder Cut’s implementation, and is said to have directly discussed the feasibility of completing the version with Snyder.
In May 2020, Chuck Snyder held a “Man of Steel” viewing party online and invited Henry Cavill to make a surprise appearance. While talking to the live audience, Chuck finally officially announced that he would release a 4-hour director’s version of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” on HBO MAX. Fans around the world cheered!
In fact, none of this comes easily. Even on the day Warner took the initiative to find Chuck, they only wanted to use unfinished storyboard CG scenes to deal with the people who have been calling for the director’s cut for the past four years! But Director Cha was unyielding. He believed that doing this was just a chance for the outside world to ridicule that this was a bad movie! The final negotiation was that Chuck would not receive a director’s salary, and WarnerMedia would allocate Chuck’s post-production and reshooting budget. The figure reported by officials and multiple media outlets was about $70 million.
Interestingly, there were originally no reshoots, but Chuck realized that this might be the last film he shot for the DC universe, and it would be weird in this universe without Batman and the Joker meeting! He talked to Jared Leto, and also proposed to Xiaoban to shoot with a green screen in his backyard, without telling Warner or paying the film, just a group of people who worked hard for the DCEU to do it out of passion. But in the end, Warner agreed to officially shoot it, and Chuck called the other cast members to come back and reshoot!
Looking back, the DCEU actors encountered some unhappy things after Chuck left. Chuck said: “The last thing they wanted to do was call me, who was still in pain at the time, to complain about their predicament. But looking back, I also feel sad for their bad experience. They are all my friends, great actors, and strong people. I hope they can have a good working environment and be treated well.”
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is four hours long, a length that’s due to Chuck’s gratitude for the fans’ enthusiastic feedback. Chuck actually cut many versions with the editor, including a more than four-hour version, a three-hour version, and a 2-hour-20-minute version. The version handed over to Warner was 2 hours and 40 minutes, 30 minutes, 28 minutes, 22 minutes, and other versions. In summary, Chuck’s ideal length would be a three-hour version. In order to give Warner two hours and XX points, it is rumored that there will eventually be a 214-minute version.
The DCEU isn’t over yet…but some people don’t like its existence.
Even though everyone knows that Snyder’s DC movie has strong supporters, the world responded enthusiastically on the day HBO MAX was broadcast, and the HBO GO network in Asia was also paralyzed.
Everyone wants to see the sequel. What will the world be like in the future? The Flash travels back in time to save the world, and Cyborg plays the role to great effect. I want to see his solo movie! Superman’s black suit is cool! But…even if it gets a bigger response, Warner still hasn’t responded at all to the follow-up news of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”, even though “The Flash” and “Aquaman 2” will be released in the future…
But Ann Sarnoff, a Warner executive, expressed hope that the SnyderVerse will continue to have the following response: “I’m grateful that they love Chuck’s work, and we are very grateful for his many contributions to DC. We are very happy that he can bring his own version of “Justice League” to reality, because about a year ago, this was not even in the plan. And with it, the completion of his trilogy. We are very happy to be able to do this, but at the same time, we are very grateful for the diverse DC that is in development. I’m very excited about the character’s plans.”
This made fans very disappointed. Although the Snyder Cut goal was achieved, after everyone watched “ZJL”, they already wanted to restore the entire Snyder-structured DC movie universe (SnyderVerse).
But Warner still chose to turn a deaf ear. In fact, since “ZJL” was released on HBO MAX, Warner deliberately did not announce its viewing figures, and even deliberately leaked “ZJL” on the Tom and Jerry channel the day before it was released. Moreover, Warner America’s YouTube channel also deliberately hid the promotional clips of “ZJL”, which is very petty! On the contrary, Warner branches in Europe and India are more supportive of Chuck than the US parent company. Fans have noticed the difference in attitude in the community and publicity, and Chuck himself has publicly expressed his gratitude.
Warner Bros. India
The official Twitter/IG account, very active during the Snyder Cut promotion in 2020–2021, often sharing materials related to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, countdown promotions, and even interacting with fans.
Publicly support #ReleaseTheSnyderCut and #SnyderCut promotion
Before the Snyder Cut was released, Warner India’s account helped release Snyder’s information earlier and more clearly than other regional branches. Chuck himself has thanked Indian fans for their enthusiasm on Vero and retweeted Warner India’s tweet.
Europe (especially Western/Southern Europe)
- Warner divisions in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France also took the initiative to launch countdown posters and social interaction when Snyder Cut was released on HBO Max and other streams.
- Some European chapters have even held online fan screenings or special promotional hashtag campaigns.
- There was a saying in the fan circle at the time: “Warner Europe understands Chuck fans better than Warner Headquarters.”
In 2022 (the 94th Academy Awards), Chuck’s fans once again made their mark when there was a “Cheer Moment” selected by the “Fans’ Choice” unit. Although he was a fan-voted unit, it was unofficially a competition entry for the Academy Awards.
As a result, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” “Speed Force” won the championship, which was also a demonstration of their power by fans to Warner executives.
However, Warner seemed unmoved. When the Oscar winners were announced, Toby Emmerich, a Warner executive present, had a displeased expression on his face. Xiao Ben, who played Batman, was filled with emotions.
Even so, Chuck seems to know that there is a high-level power struggle on Warner’s side. Only if his side, such as Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, win, will he have the opportunity to return to Warner to film DC works. (Discovery Inc. had acquired Warner by then)
We later learned that Gunn and Peter Safran took over as co-chairs of DC Studios, which meant that Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy lost out on DC projects.
But Chuck did not slow down. In April 2023, he held a SnyderCon (Full Circle) event to give back to his fans. In addition to Chuck Snyder, there were also guests such as Ben Affleck and Ray Fisher, screenwriter Chris Terrio, D.J. DesJardin (VFX supervisor), Dody Dorn (editor).
Although this event cannot change the actual situation of the SnyderVerse, it actually slaps a lot of negative fans in the face. First, at least you know that Chuck never gave up on the SnyderVerse! Second, Xiao Ben doesn’t want to give up playing Batman at all! Why he came back to play “The Flash” and guest star in “Aquaman 2” during that period was because Discovery acquired Warner Bros. and both Toby Emmerich and Hamada were kicked out. This gives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy a chance to resume the SnyderVerse, so Ben and Henry will both be back, period.
When the name Geoff Johns was mentioned at the conference, screenwriter Chris Terrio and other guests became angry, threw the microphone and left! This proves that those stories on the Internet were true and how Warner executives interfered with Chuck’s team.
When an audience asked Chuck what his relationship with Gunn was like, he smiled and replied, “They are my buddies.” Everyone burst into laughter because everyone knew that this was a polite and ironic humorous response.
After Gunn took over at DC Studios, he officially announced that he would reboot the DCU and not continue the Snyderverse. Chuck fans generally have reservations and even hostility toward Gon, so the issue itself is sensitive.
When Chuck said “buddies”, his tone was obviously ironic or humorous, as if he was saying “Don’t think I’m going to start a war here.” Everyone in the audience knew that Snyder and Gunn weren’t really close, so the joke was that Snyder was using light-hearted banter to “dodge the important stuff.”
Some people on the Internet have been saying that Chuck and Gunn are good friends, and Gunn also served as the screenwriter for “Dawn of the Dead” directed by Cha. Gunn was actually one of the original screenwriters, but was ultimately not hired. The reason was that it was “too violent and expensive” – especially the large number of CG zombie dogs and violent scenes involving real dogs, which the producers could not afford. A version of the script by Michael Tolkin was ultimately adopted.
Of course, this just means that Gunn was not the screenwriter of “Dawn of the Dead”, but he did participate in it but was not used. As for whether the two are good friends, it is not known. It can only be said that they have known each other for a long time. By the way, many Gunn fans on the Internet said that Gunn had filmed a dark Superman earlier, which was “Brightburn”! But Gunn is actually just a producer, not a director.
After Gunn came to power, he fired Henry, stopped the promotion of Dark Adam, revised “The Flash” and “Aquaman 2” with SnyderVerse plots, and canceled the development of Wonder Woman 3. On the surface, it agrees but refuses to release David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad: Ayer’s Director’s Cut”. In fact, you probably know whether Gunn and Chuck are good friends.
The DCU has a difficult future
The current global box office is 594,518,636, and it has been put on digital platforms. There are still a few theaters showing it, and the best ones can reach a box office of 600 million. But even so, it still lost to MOS’s box office of 670,145,518! And that’s without accounting for inflation. If converted to today’s currency, MOS would be 670.1M × 1.387 = 930M USD. Quite a distance, right?
According to Warner’s standards, the three newly launched Superman movies are all failures?
Even compared with 2006’s “Superman Rises,” which was considered a failure by Warner Bros., 391,081,192 × 1.6024 = $626.7M. It seems that the 2025 Superman cannot even defeat the 2006 Superman. Now the only performance that those who support this movie can point to is that their US box office is higher than MOS! Some hard-core fans also said that this movie is too meaningful at the box office because it finally brought Superman back to the light! (So can this be applied to Batman and Robin back then?)
Final summary:
Due to the topic caused by the release of Gunn’s Superman, I finally finished writing about Director Cha’s DCEU trilogy and Warner’s internal struggles! I have collected enough information so far, and it’s just a live broadcast with like-minded partners in Hong Kong to talk about it! This time, I have compiled all the big and small incidents in words, so that everyone can know that Warner has been doing this kind of thing before.
Outsiders have always used the term cult to describe fans of DCEU, and those anti-fans also use cult-like methods to bully fans. Fan Cha just wants to watch the DCEU movie led by him! In fact, there is also data to prove that Chuck’s DCEU works have sold very well at the box office and peripherals! These materials are not written by AI, they are all collected in the past. If you have not seen them, it is because Chinese websites generally have cooperative relationships with film companies, so they will not be written down.
Some people say that the DCEU film failed, but data proves that when director Cha is on hand, the box office is very good, and there is still money to be made! It’s just not as good as Marvel. Even if you quit production and rely on your remaining power, the DCEU movies are still very good! But you will find that when the audience finds out that Director Cha really has not come back, and DC movies tend to be more Marvel-like, all subsequent DC movies have plummeted! This is the truth behind what people now call “the DCEU failed.”
And the above-mentioned issues with Warner executives, even if you think it is fake news, you can look for clips from SnyderCon (Full Circle) in April 2023! We know how high-level Warner executives interfered, how dissatisfied the editor was, and that Ben Xiaoban never gave up on playing Batman…
If you are a Cha fan or DCEU fan, I hope you like the information I wrote, but I don’t think it will help you quarrel with anti-fans on the Internet! Because people have a standing position, all evidence is like decoration.
beautiful lie
Finally, would you like to explain why I preface this article with “Beautiful Lie”? “Beautiful Lie” is the background music of BVS’s blues recalling the death of his parents, a beautiful and moving tune composed by Hans Zimmer.
For me, Director Cha’s DCEU movie is like a dream. It’s like Warner’s Beautiful Lies. Like most movie fans, I think that the Batman of that generation was Bale and Superman was Brandon. Why reboot the universe? Why change actors? I don’t like the rugged looking Henry and Ben, and I also think Gadot is too slender.
But in the end, Director Cha successfully delivered a good work that convinced me to accept these roles. Maybe I am someone who buys discs and collects them, so I will see the extended version, unlike those people who are still chasing BVS now.
The DCEU world that Director Cha built made me look forward to it. He predicted the future situation, which makes it very different from other superhero movies (although Marvel later also made it!) However, Warner rejected him and made a semi-modified DCEU without Director Cha.
The results got worse and worse, and finally ended up with a Gunn DCU! Then you will realize that what Warner originally said about poor performance or bad reputation cannot be applied to the works they want to promote. As for me, you pushed the DCEU on me and I accepted it! Then you magically changed them! Then the results are not good, you forcefully change the DCU, spend money to buy reputation, and it turns out that even Superman The Return cannot surpass it, and then the universe can continue? No one admits their decision-making mistakes and can only blame the previous administration for ruining the market. Everything is just a “beautiful lie”, isn’t it?