DC's Batman v Superman had bagged the weekend of 6 May 2016, until Marvel pinned Captain America 3 to the same date. Last week, Warner Bros, which owns DC, moved its title to 25 March. Box office expert Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for Rentrak, which measures changes in the entertainment business, says that even though Warners had to back down, "it was a smart move, because it made no sense for those two movies to open on the same day... It's a very expensive game of chicken, and nobody wins."
Warner Bros recently added a total of nine as yet untitled DC movies to its schedule. Director Christopher Nolan's Batman movies were hugely successful, but that trilogy is now complete and the new Ben Affleck incarnation of Batman is untested. Nevertheless, Dawn of Justice is planned as a gateway to future films featuring the Justice League, DC's answer to the Avengers.
Video: The bets are off for Batman vs. Superman
Several Justice League characters are poised to headline their own titles, including Wonder Woman and Aquaman, a role Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa is expected to fill. The cinematic superhero landscape is complicated by Marvel properties licensed to other studios. Sony has reportedly planned four more Spider-Man movies. Fox has two further X-Men titles, a reboot of Fantastic Four in 2015 and a sequel already slated for 2017.
Might audiences tire of superheroes? Only if the quality dips, says Dergarabedian. "People know a superhero movie is the pinnacle of that popcorn experience. Marvel and others are getting to the point where, like Pixar, they've taken what was considered a second-rate genre and made it a premiere genre, because of the talent and resources they're putting behind them."
- Independent