The Avengers became such a success because of the ingenious 4 year build up. Rope of Silicon (one of my fav movie sites, check if out if you haven't already), wrote up a bit about why The Avengers became a phenomenon in a post about the new Mortal Instruments movie, of all things. This part in particular stands out.
Why is Marvel's The Avengers working? Because they've treated it like a television show with two massive episodes a year and now even a television show, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", coming this Fall. And each theatrical episode has a little teaser for the next one built right into its credits and I'm sure the television series will do the same for not only the show, but for the movies coming out that year.
I think this approach to the universe works so well because they treated each story as essential to the main attraction along with introducing beloved comic characters to the mainstream. Singular experiences that when tied together prove more compelling. I don't think a Justice League movie without that build-up would be a mistake for two reasons:
- You aren't introducing characters properly to the mainstream. Note that Avengers didn't do a particularly great job of introducing Hawkeye & Black Widow to the team. Some of the blame is on them not being quite as compelling characters in comparison to the rest of the team, but also, the movie was just so overstuffed with other goings-on that they couldn't properly flesh out those characters up to that point. America knows Batman & Superman (and probably Green Lantern even though some of us would like to forget it) but Wonder Woman? Flash? Martian Manhunter? It'd be hard enough to introduce one of them in the film, but 3? You won't do the character (and the comic book fans) justice & you'll just be confusing the audience members who had no prior experience with these characters.
- You're giving the main attraction away at start. When watching Wonder Woman fight alongside Superman and Batman in order to save the world, isn't a sole Wonder Woman a way less enticing proposition afterwards? Iron Man 3 smartly dodged this by acting as a Tony-centric epilogue to The Avengers, but still, the aim for the DC Universe film franchise is for audience growth. Solo adventures of DC characters after the big team-up film isn't growing the audience, just retaining & limiting the audience they already have.
My word isn't law, all just opinions at the end of the day, but I feel like with a more esoteric roster of characters & much more limited success in Hollywood, it could be bad for DC to try to deviate from the formula that Marvel proved successful.
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