While it hasn’t exactly performed like a regular superhero movie at the box office, the latest installment of the DC Universe is meeting the expectations of its genre. Whether this qualifies as a success for the brand remains to be seen, but for the DC Universe to experiment so early in its run is worth commending. Instead of building toward an Avengers-like mega-budget crossover event, the franchise has so far produced disparate films and shows across genres. The results have been hit or miss, with James Gunn‘s Superman reboot doing solid business but the Supergirl movie bombing terribly.
Following the disappointing performance of Supergirl this summer, all eyes were on the third feature installment of the franchise. The movie in question has spent two weeks in release, which means that it experienced its first drop in theater count this week. Because the movie wasn’t front-loaded like most horror offerings, in addition to a positive reception from both critics and audiences, the decline has been rather controlled. For instance, Supergirl — directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Milly Alcock — was removed from 1,100 theaters in its third week.
Produced on a reported budget of more than $180 million, the film ended its global run with $125 million. It received mixed reviews and is now sitting at a 52% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Alcock will reportedly return as the character in next year’s Man of Tomorrow, starring David Corenswet as Superman and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Directed by Gunn, the third installment in the DCU’s Superman saga will be released in July 2027.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which MCU Villain Do You Align With? Killmonger · Namor · Zemo · Thanos
Eight honest questions about how you actually are: what you do about something unfair, how long you will wait for what you want, who you are really loyal to, how easily you let a thing go. Answer them and we will tell you which one of these four you have more in common with than you would like. Every one of them thinks they are the reasonable person in the room.
🐆Killmonger(Black Panther)
🔱Namor(Wakanda Forever)
🎭Zemo(Civil War)
🧤Thanos(Infinity War)
01
How do you react to something you think is unfair? All four of these men started here.
02
How long will you wait for something you want? Patience separates these four more than anything else.
03
Who are you actually loyal to? Answer for the real one, not the polite one.
04
How do you win an argument? Everybody has one method and uses it every time.
05
How easily do you let something go? This is the question that makes villains out of people.
06
What do you think about breaking the rules? Nobody on this list has ever felt guilty about it.
07
What do people say about you behind your back? You already know which one it is.
08
What would you do with real power? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your villain.
The Case Is Made You Align With…
Four villains, and four arguments the films were honest enough to
actually let them make. Here is the one you lean towards, the part of it that holds up, and the
exact point where it stops holding up.
Black Panther · Marvel Studios · 2018
Erik Killmonger
You align with the one who was right about the problem and wrong
about the solution. Killmonger is the most persuasive villain Marvel has produced because
the film never pretends his anger came from nowhere.
You notice who was abandoned and you cannot let it go, which is a moral instinct before
it is anything else.
His argument lands because Wakanda really did watch and do nothing, and the film makes
T’Challa admit it out loud.
Where it breaks is the method, since a man who was failed by power decided the answer
was to hold more of it.
Michael B. Jordan plays him as somebody performing certainty over grief, which is why
the last scene of that film still works.
Wakanda Forever · Marvel Studios · 2022
Namor
You align with the protector, which is the most understandable
and most dangerous position on this list. Namor is not chasing power or revenge, he is doing
whatever keeps his people hidden, and he has been doing it for centuries.
Your loyalty has a hard border around it, and everything inside that border matters far
more to you than anything outside it.
Talokan is the best realised world Marvel has built since Wakanda, and the film makes
you understand exactly what he is guarding.
His logic is airtight right up until it requires somebody else’s people to pay for his
people’s safety.
He would rather be feared by the surface world forever than trust it once, and history
has given him reasons.
Captain America: Civil War · 2016
Helmut Zemo
You align with the patient one, the only man on this list with no
powers, no army and no hurry. Zemo lost his family in Sokovia and then spent years working
out that you do not fight the Avengers, you introduce them to each other’s secrets.
You go quiet when you are hurt, and the quiet is where the thinking happens.
Zemo is the only MCU villain who completely won, and he did it with a notebook, a plan
and a great deal of self control.
His grief is real, and the film is careful never to let you forget that he started as an
ordinary man with a family.
Where it fails is the cost, since taking apart the people who hurt him meant hurting a
great many people who did not.
Avengers: Infinity War · 2018
Thanos
You align with the one who decided the answer was arithmetic.
Thanos is not angry and not grieving in any way he will admit to, he simply reached a
conclusion and never once revisited it, which is precisely what makes him frightening.
You are capable of holding a position that costs you everything, and you would call that
conviction rather than stubbornness.
Infinity War works because it is structured as his film, with a goal, a journey and a
sacrifice, and the heroes are the obstacle.
The flaw in the plan is not the cruelty, it is that he never seriously considered a
single alternative to it.
Josh Brolin plays him tired rather than triumphant, which is the choice that turned a
purple giant into a real character.
Here’s How Much the Movie Has Grossed at the Box Office
The franchise’s latest installment, of course, is Clayface. Designed as a comparatively lean anti-hero spin-off in the vein of Joker, the movie received positive reviews and is now sitting at a “Certified Fresh” 78% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. More impressively, the film’s audience score on the aggregator is perched at a “Verified Hot” 94% — extremely rare for the horror genre. The site’s consensus reads, “Carving out a unique identity for itself in the DCU while closely resembling a litany of body horror classics, Clayface takes time to get going until it eventually morphs into an icky and satisfying revenge thriller.”
Having debuted in 3,478 theaters two weeks ago, Clayface lost 532 theaters this week. It’s heading into its third week of release with $92 million in the bank globally against a reported budget of $44 million, playing in 3,946 theaters. Starring Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, Max Minghella, and Eddie Marsan, the movie was directed by James Watkins.
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