The second weekend of Batman vs. Superman had a box office drop of 68%, which was worse than the expected 60% drop. That number is very relative considering that the film has made over $680 million worldwide so far. There’s still the question of how much word of mouth and scathing critic reviews affected ticket sales, especially on a weekend where there wasn’t much competition. I know I saw Star Wars twice and while BvS isn’t on that level of fandom, I think more movie goers would have seen it more than once if it was actually decent. This may also affect plans for the DC universe’s future. We’ve already heard that Suicide Squad is undergoing reshoots to make it more audience friendly.
It was reported last week that Ben Affleck had completed a standalone Batman script but that it had not been optioned yet. Many of us were saying that Affleck should be able to direct and star in that movie, because he’s a talented director and he’ll surely do better than Zach Snyder. (There are film students who could have directed BvS better than Snyder, but that’s also down to the script.) In a new interview, Snyder revealed that Affleck is likely to direct the Batman film, whenever it happens, but that he’s not sure when that will be. He’s pretty nice about it and even said he’s been trying to convince him.
Have you convinced Ben Affleck to do that standalone Batman film yet?
“I keep working on him. He’s always says ‘I’m like a one movie at a time guy.’ He’s finishing editing his film, Live By Night, and then he comes to Justice League. And then after that, I think he’s going to start to try and develop the story, and so then we’ll see if he likes it.”Hopefully he jumps on board as director too
“Oh yeah, for sure. I think he would. I think that’s kind of the prerequisite, hopefully, for him doing this.”
[From video from Joe.ie via Outerplaces]
Snyder was so nice and unassuming that I actually felt sorry for him after seeing that interview. I’m sure he’s not the only reason BvS was a bloated mess. It takes a team of people to screw up that spectacularly.
As for what we can expect from the standalone Batman movie, MoviePilot has some potential plots from the comics that Affleck might use for the film. I guess I should say “potential spoilers,” but they’re so speculative that we probably don’t need to worry about that at this point.
Last week we saw moving trucks at Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s house. The paparazzi reported that Ben has moved down the street, yet again, to the mansion he was renting from Brooke Shields. Celebrity outlets were reporting that he was living with Garner for a while but I guess he’s moved at this point. The two have not yet filed for divorce.
Here’s Zach Snyder’s interview:
photos credit: FameFlynet, WENN and Getty
He should direct his plastic surgeon straight to jail. Not sure what he thought the puffy face a better than just aging naturally…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA you win. Sad Affleck would’ve definitely looked better with no botox in his face.
Despite all reports – as a comic book fan – I really enjoyed the movie. I really, really liked the movie. As a matter of fact I was really startled to read some of the reviews and reports. I think it really is an audience movie. Everyone in the theater loved it. That having been said, I hope they keep going with this. I wouldn’t mind a stand alone!
My sentiments exactly. It referenced a ton of comics I enjoyed it more than any other film this year. . . and yes, Lex was badly cast. Oh well.
I actually thought Lex was really good, the actor doing a great job. Very odd, but I think that was the whole point of the character. One of the most entertaining characters of the film in my opinion.
I really enjoyed the film as well. No movie is perfect and while it may have had some editing issues it was still a good comic book film that played closer to who Batman really is. Some people may say that when they don’t like a film the ones that did like it accuse them of not getting it. In this case some of the movie viewers and readers on C/B didn’t get it. They were confused by the dream sequences or flashbacks so in their heads because they didn’t quite understand all that was happening in the movie they called it a bad film or bloated mess.
We just saw it yesterday and enjoyed it, quite a lot actually. My only nitpick was the last half hour felt like a choose your own ending. At least six times they had perfect closings… and then it just kept going…
As a non-comic book person, the first half was really hard to follow, especially since I hadn’t seen Man of Steel. Like (spoilers) how did Lex know their secret identities? Was the little talking robot thing randomly part of the alien ship or Lex’s? Why try to frame Superman in such a convoluted way? How (geographically) are Metropolis and Gotham related? Are like across the river from each other? There were so many questions like these, and then suddenly (!) you would see Superman on a mountain talking to his dead father or a random Batman dream sequence.
That said, the second half was awesome. Despite the bad reviews, I honestly I preferred the movie to Age of Ultron.
I agree! I loved the movie. it was even better than the first Man of Steel. I don’t understand why the critics and the blogger don’t like it. Most people I have spoken to share my opinion.
I guess it depends on the audience. About 20 people walked out of the showing I went to, and there was definitely no positive energy in the room after about 20 minutes. I went to a Thursday preview too, so I assume the audience was largely people excited for the film.
No matter how nice Zack Snyder is in interviews, his films are mysogynist POS. That’s an internalised view finding expression in films, so i will never feel sorry for him.
I remember walking into Sucker Punch incredibly excited, and walking out feeling personally insulted. And he took Lena Heady’s amazing character in 300 and of course had her assaulted (even if she was trying to help her husband, you can’t watch that scene without realizing that there would be some serious trauma for her after), because why put a woman in a film if she’s not being sexually degraded.
Time for Snyder to eat humble pie.
I’m not a Zack Snyder apologist but what you said could be said about almost every episode of Games Of Thrones.
Tell it, LAK!
I’d take a Joss Whedon movie over any of his.
Too bad he left Marvel.
It’s crossed the $700m mark now, people are betting it is going to hit around $900m, some even debating whether it will get to $1b (doubtful).
It cost $250m to make, $150m in marketing. The movie studios like to see the movie make at least double what the outlay was, so they make sure they get everything back (taking into account they don’t get all the money from ticket sales). BvS needs to make it past $800m to be deemed a financial success.
It’s not far off, it is not a bomb. It’s still made massive bank in the grand scheme of things, I just think studios need to be more realistic about how many movies are going to be able to get into the $1billlion club.
It’s making good money, but when it was announced people were talking about it making at least Avengers money, likely even more. Over about a year and a half expectations were gradually lowered and lowered, but up until a few weeks before release people were still saying it would make a billion fairly easily. It’s not technically a financial bomb, but it has kind of bombed in that it’s going to come in well under even the worst predictions and make about half what WB had once hoped it could.
WB gets it’s money back and then some, but some of their future plans relied on this film making about 400-500 million more than it’s going to, so it’s still a huge disappointment and it’s going to effect them for years.
Ben looks happy to see the paps.
Affleck directing a Batman movie always was in WB’s ideas
Some people have questioned whether he’s really renting Brooke’s house since she just put it up for rent and it’s being openly advertised, but x17 does seem to have pics from him last week outside of it. Who knows. DM and others are also reporting that they’ve all rented a house together in London for when he is filming. Sounds like the coziest, most drawn out non-divorce I’ve ever seen. Yep.
Keep clinging to that dream, sis.
It sounds like Chris Martin and GOOPY and also Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green. Both couples still doing things together. I think Megan and Fox still live in the same house and are always seen out with the toddlers together. GOOPY says they have sleepovers (platonic) and go on vacations together. LOL
Funny. I guess it’s possible, but think it’s interesting – it’s been a year since they separated if you believe reports they separated months before the June announcement. Jen has seemed very resistant to even mentioning moving on or dating, which does still make me think they’re in limbo mode to see how things go. Otherwise, why not finally file at this point?
On another note, my husband and I saw BvS last weekend. He loved it. I also really liked it – definitely solid and actually liked Ben, Henry, Amy (less so Jesse.) Would definitely see the solo Batman movie.
Hang on, didn’t Ben Affleck have arms covered in tattoos during the 1990s/2000s? He showed them off to douche-tastic effect in the ‘Jenny From the Block’ video, and I remember it being commented on re: that movie that he did with Sandra Bullock that he couldn’t take his shirt off in the ‘stripping’ scene because of all his tatts.
It’s more his shoulders than his arms
You can make up/hide the tatoos efficiently.
In France,2 makeups on the bruises are forbidden of commercial because “they favorite the violence against the women”
At least the movie has performed better at the box office than Miracles from Heaven (34.5 m) 😺;
It is a small film. The budget was only 13M. It is already at 50M. It can’t be compared to BVS. It will make at least 90M as projected. It will open in Europe in June.
I think it is a movie that will play well on dvd/blu-ray/download as well.
Ben always looks so hungover these days. Granted, I think in the top picture he looks nice- rested, clean, maybe a wee to botoxed, but still healthy. However, the bottom picture he looks like tired, hungover Ben that we see so often lately. It is kind of sad, really.
People mag has him partying on Saturday night. LOL. Here we go.
Haven’t seen it yet but everyone I know who saw it enjoyed it. It’s an audience movie. Good critic reviews doesn’t mean a movie is watchable let alone enjoyable, the opinion of general movie goers is more important.
Ben is a great director, I loved gone baby gone and the town. Although I didn’t like Argo. He’s much better behind the camera than in front of it. I think he’ll direct a great movie.
If only he could fire the plastic surgeon and never go under the knife again. His friend Matt has much more subtle work done but it’s obvious, nobody has fewer wrinkles at 45 than 25, nobody, not even Matt Damon. It’s off-putting for a man to be so vain and insecure as to have his face pulled and tucked or whatever they’re doing. Wish they would stop it.
I hope he ditches Justice league, I know he cannot do that, but go straight to the Batman solo movie directed by him. Also I’d like to see him in that project with Fincher, the remake, revisitation of Strangers on a train, he and Fincher plus Gillian Flynn make a good team.
I ran into a client of mine. While making small-talk, I asked him if he had seen BvS. He said he hadn’t because of the reviews, but that then a lot of his friends went. He said every one of them really liked the movie. So now he and his wife are going because of so many positive opinions from friends. I told him I enjoyed it. It wasn’t great, but it was a good movie worth seeing on the big screen.
The negativity has definitely had an impact. I hope it keeps chugging along and keeping up steam.
I have not seen Violet lately with Ben and even with the whole family. She is only with Jen at most times. I am just basing my observation on the pictures being published. Maybe she was the one who saw her dad with the nanny?
They do live a full life at home or away from the cameras that is not photographed. I wouldn’t go by some photos to base anything off of.
Violet wasn’t in the pap pics of the family going into church on Easter- it was Jen, Ben and the younger two. However If you watch the pap video of same church stroll, Violet is seen for two split seconds in the beginning, as she dives out of the car and runs around the corner of the building ahead of everyone by herself and out of view. Like she was sick of being papped and had asked permission to run ahead to avoid them.
It showed me she’s aware of when the paparazzi will be present and wants to avoid them when possible. Kinda sad; I felt guilty clicking on the video to watch since that supports the whole circus.
Do you guys think he actually moved out and into Brooke’s house?
Not sure but it’s a good question @JoJo.
Brooke’s house isn’t actually right next door, there’s another property between them so it’s not like the kids can stroll across the yard to Dad’s – they’d have to walk up the driveway thru the front gate and down a few steps on the main (public) street to his gate. Too many paps around to do that imo. So I wonder if he is renting how much time he’ll actually spend there.
The movers last week were shown taking items out of the large white van and putting them into the flatbed of a smaller truck, which I thought was odd. It may make sense though if those items were Ben’s taken from the Affleck compound and being moved two houses down the road.
Yeah, I wonder. Maybe also possible that they were packing stuff to ship to England? But it would seem pointless to ship stuff across the ocean when I’m sure the UK house is fully furnished and they can just buy smaller stuff while they’re there.
He couldn’t do worse than Snyder and his obsession with all things that look like balls. IJS. Seriously, Watchmen, Man of Steel – the ships all look like balls. The men’s bits kind of balls. He’s got the mentality of a 12-year-old boy.
Saw the movie. Liked it a lot in spite of its flaws. I think the dream sequences could have been cut and there were a few wtf moments for me, like how in the world did Supes know Lois was in danger in Africa? And other occasions where he rescued her.
I loved Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and despite all my initial reservations, I thought Ben Affleck did a great job as Batman. Jeremy Iron’s word vomit is a turn off but the man is a terrific actor and I enjoyed his take on Alfred Pennyworth as well.
according to Jai Courtney the Suicide Squad re-shoots are for action sequences and considering he’s kept the Captain Boomerang messy beard for months it was probably expected to go into re shoots anyway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr83sLEAU1A&nohtml5=False