It is now clear that Warner Bros. may lose almost $100 million on Justice League. The DC Films’ first ensemble superhero movie has not worked out the way that everyone had expected. This movie has received mixed reactions from the critics and has earned a B+ Cinemascore and a pretty bad Rotten Tomato Score rating.
This blockbuster earned $96 million in its opening weekend domestically which is very far from the $110-120 million that it had been tracking. Justice League‘s U.S. debut has been the lowest for a DC Film release yet. Internationally, the movie performed better and earned $281.5 million, but even that seems to not be enough to ensure that this blockbuster becomes a commercial success. It has recently been reported that Justice League may not even turn a profit and many lose the studio a whole lot of money.
Forbes has now broken down the numbers and has tried to gauge what the movie’s gross may be. Justice League‘s budget increased to $300 million after the reshoots and they spent $150 million more for the marketing. So, a total of $450 million including the global home entertainment costs ($60 million), talent guild residuals ($20 million), interest expense ($20 million), and the talent costs to cover the cast, crew, and producers ($50 million). The final number is $600 million.
Forbes has also made an informed and educated guess based on the current box office trajectory of this new movie, with the domestic haul being $235 million (2.45 multiplied by the movie’s opening weekend, with 2.45 being a median for the last 4 movies from DC Films). Justice League can pocket around $400 million of we assume that it performs along the same lines of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
This will give the movie $635 million in earnings and $545 million of which may end up in WB’s account. Should this be the case, itmay result in a $55 million loss at the least before factoring the overhead costs and time taken for the movie to earn revenue from channels other than the box office, which can drive its total to $100 million.
This will put DC Films’ franchise plans in a very tough spot. While James Wan’s Aquaman has finished with the filming and David F.Sandberg’s Shazam! and Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 2 are moving forward, there are many DC movies in development.These are Nightwing, Suicide Squad 2, and Batgirl. These 3 are in danger of falling by the wayside. It is possible that Justice League will do better than expected over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday frame and it may improve its chances of not posting a $100 million loss. Pixar’s Coco is projected to open well at the U.S. box office and may out perform Justice League.
