Marvel vs DC: Marketing at the Movies

On May 2, 2008, the world of Hollywood blockbusters changed forever as Iron Man hit the theaters as the first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Preforming well on its own, the film grossed $585.5 million worldwide, which is certainly impressive enough to get attention from the rest of the industry, however, the franchise that it created is really what changed things. Afterall, the MCU has made over $25 billion worldwide, making it the most successful movie franchise by far. As such, have you noticed how throughout the 2010s, more and more studios have been trying to copy the MCU's successful formula? Sony tried to do it with its own "Dark Universe" revolving around famous movie monsters like The Mummy, but that went nowhere. The most notable company to try and copy the formula is DC Comics, Marvel's direct competitor in the comic book industry. While the two comic studios have always been competitive on paper, on the screen, it's been very one-sided. Sure, $5.8 billion is nothing to scoff at, in fact, those numbers place the DC Extended Universe at the eleventh highest grossing film franchise of all time, however, it's just barely more than a fifth of what the MCU is pulling in. Why is there such a difference, how does the MCU continue to succeed where the DCEU failed, and how might The Batman and Joker hint that DC may be changing its strategy to give Marvel a run for its money?

Let's start with why the MCU is so successful. I talked about film marketing budgets at great length in my last blogpost, so I won't go into detail about that here. Just know that a huge part of the success of any blockbuster is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a marketing budget for trailers, posters, etc. Every MCU movie is a blockbuster, meaning each film is being made to attract an enormous opening weekend performance and as such, they can't take a low-cost strategy to marketing like other films, especially in the horror genre, can get away with. However, that doesn't mean the MCU is only successful because of their marketing budget. There are two techniques used within (almost) every MCU film that, while not created by these movies, have been popularized by them: Crossovers and post-credit scenes. Crossovers are nothing new in film. Some of the earliest franchise crossovers can be traced back to Sony's monster movies. People would pay to see team up movies between Frankenstein and Dracula or battles between the Mummy and the Wolfman. The MCU took this idea and perfected it. Crossovers come in two main forms in the MCU: small cameos that surprise the audience and giant ensembles. Take Thor Ragnarök for example, where Benedict Cumberbatch makes an appearance as Dr. Strange for five minutes to remind the audience that his character is off doing something, making them excited to see what he'll do next and wonder "when's his next movie coming out?" That's marketing for a movie that doesn't even exist yet! The ensemble films, aka the Avengers movies, bring dozens of characters together for a single story and as such, some people feel inclined to watch every movie featuring those characters to "prepare" for the next Avengers. They don't want to miss anything! Speaking of not missing anything, if you've watched a few MCU movies in theaters, do you tend to wait through the credits of every movie you see now, even if it isn't in the MCU? That's because of how lucrative marvel's post-credit scenes have proved to be. These short scenes that play during the credits, like Thanos reaching for his infinity gauntlet after the credits of Avengers: Age of Ultron, are again, marketing for a movie that doesn't even exist yet. The most genius thing about it is that these post-credit scenes are included in the film's budget, not the marketing budget. It's basically free press!

^Thanos wields the infinity gauntlet in the credit's scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron

Now, let's take a look at DC. Man of Steel released in 2013 as the Iron Man of the DCEU. Besides the oddly similar name, the two films were very different, with DC seemingly trying to differentiate itself from Marvel by hiring Zach Snyder to shoot a film with a darker tone than the quip-filled MCU movies. At first, all seemed well as Man of Steel grossed over $667 million in the global box office, but movie goers were disappointed that there was no post-credit scene to set up a greater universe. Things didn't get bad until 2016 when Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was released. With a $150 million marketing budget, and the brand recognition of two iconic superheroes meeting on the big screen for the first time, the opening weekend of the film was a massive success, grossing $422.5 million worldwide, the highest opening weekend return of any comic book adaptation at the time. Sounds great right? Well, the problem for DC began with the second weekend of Batman v Superman, when returns nose-dived 69% to grossing just over $50 million. How did that happen? A unique problem for DC that Marvel never had an issue with (at least at the time) was critical response. Critics panned the film almost universally, scaring off potential customers. The DCEU used the same strategy as Marvel in Batman v Superman, with a huge crossover from Wonder Woman and a post-credit scene to set up the villain for 2017's Justice League. However, the movie was so poorly received that not many people wanted to see the story continued. Just like that, Marvel's strength became DC's weakness. Justice League ended up being one of the most expensive films of all time, and DC lost $60 million with it.

^The Batman (2022)

Critical reception was a key aspect of the MCU's success that the DCEU wasn't anticipating as a primary driver of success. As such, the early DCEU movies flopped. With Avengers: Endgame grossing over $2 billion worldwide in 2019, DC must have accepted that they just weren't going to achieve that level of success if they stayed on the same path. They certainly took the critical reception aspect of their failure to heart, however, and because of that, a new trend for DC films has presented itself and I think it could definitely put a dent in Marvel's box office domination. DC released Joker in 2019 to critical acclaim. Rather than trying to be a story set in a big expanding universe, DC decided to invest in, essentially, an art-house film that seriously explored a comic book character. An incredibly risky move, that paid off big-time. Grossing over $1 billion worldwide, DC could see nothing but green. Perhaps they don't have to follow Marvel's strategy to be successful? Instead of doubling down, however, DC decided to continue with the DCEU, with more quality control, AND fund completely separated movies like Joker to get the best of both worlds. 2021's The Suicide Squad, while suffering in performance due to the pandemic, demonstrates how DCEU movies are moving toward the right direction critically. Most recently, The Batman (2022) has risen into the public eye as the must-see blockbuster of the season, grossing $463 million in its first 10 days. With this change of strategy to a more diverse production of films, DC's future looks bright. Only time will tell if they outshine marvel.

Works Cited

Cain, Rob. “Was the $400 Million Warner Bros.. Put into 'Batman v Superman' a Good Investment?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 6 Apr. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/robcain/2016/04/06/was-the-400-million-warner-bros-paid-for-batman-v-superman-a-good-investment/?sh=5b56f8872fb8.

Clark, Travis. “All 27 Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies, Ranked by How Much Money They Made at the Global Box Office.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 25 Jan. 2022, https://www.businessinsider.com/marvel-movies-ranked-how-much-money-at-global-box-office-2021-11.

“DC Extended Universe Franchise Box Office History.” The Numbers, https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/DC-Extended-Universe#tab=summary.

“Joker.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl252151297/?ref_=bo_rl_tab#tabs.

McClintock, Pamela. “Box Office: Inside 'Batman v. Superman's' Historic Drop-Off.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Apr. 2016, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/box-office-inside-batman-v-880143/.

Rubin, Rebecca. “'The Batman' Sets Sights on $500 Million at Global Box Office.” Variety,

Variety, 14 Mar. 2022, https://variety.com/2022/film/box-office/the-batman-global-box-office-500-million-1235203499/.