Why all 5 DCEU movies post-COVID have been box office bombs, explained

It has been five years since the DCEU has seen true success, as ever since Aquaman, none of the DCEU movies have been box office hits. Shazam! delivered average numbers as it only brought in $367 million worldwide, produced on a budget of $100 million. After that, Birds of Prey only made $205 million and had a production budget of around $85 million.

None of these movies had been highly profitable ventures. Ever since Aquaman, the DC brand has only managed to survive on the heads of Joker and The Batman. Rest, all DCEU movies produced under Walter Hamada’s leadership were bogged down by COVID, behind-the-scenes controversies, issues with the SynderVerse fans, and in most cases, poor writing and studio intervention.

Post-COVID-19, we’ve had five DCEU films that have led DC to its doom. As a result, Warner Bros. has lost a lot of money and has been struggling to produce good DC films.

Black Adam and four other DCEU failures post-pandemic

Wonder Woman 1984

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in DCEU (Image via DC Studios)

After the original Wonder Woman’s profitability, WB showed a lot of faith in the Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot duo. Unfortunately for the studio, a lot went wrong with Wonder Woman 1984. The film came out post-pandemic when theaters were really struggling.

So, COVID was a huge factor in its failure. On top of that, Warner Bros. also gave the film a simultaneous HBO Max release. As a result, the film did drive a few subscriptions for the streamer but only made $169 million at the global box office ($46 million domestic).

It was produced on a budget of $200 million and didn’t turn out to be profitable. It neither impressed the critics nor the fans. As a result, Patty Jenkins’ treatment of Wonder Woman 3 was rejected, and DC Studios started to develop a new DC Universe.

The Suicide Squad

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad also suffered similar problems to Wonder Woman 1984. It was a movie that critics and fans liked, but it came out at the cusp of the COVID pandemic and got a simultaneous day and date release on HBO Max. So, many people decided to watch it in the comfort of their homes.

Another problem that the film faced was that it didn’t feature any familiar DC characters besides Harley Quinn, and as mentioned above, a Harley Quinn-centric movie had already failed at the box office once. Furthermore, the movie was R-Rated, so a lot of teenagers that drive superhero movie sales didn’t get to watch it in theaters.

As a result, The Suicide Squad only made $168 million worldwide ($55 million domestically) on a $185 million production budget.

Black Adam

Over a year after The Suicide Squad, we got Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam, which became the highest-grossing DCEU movie since Aquaman. It made $393 million globally and pulled in $168 million at the domestic box office out of a production budget of close to $200 million.

Reports suggested that it did turn in $52 million as profits once every bit of revenue from the digital HD sales and streaming deals had been factored in. But the jury is still out on its success, as it didn’t impress the critics either. The biggest reason for Black Adam’s average results was unoriginal writing, action, and characters.

Even though Black Adam packed five new DC characters, they all followed superhero tropes we had seen in the past. The action was strong, but it wasn’t anything unique, as it felt like an amalgamation of all the superhero movie fights we had seen before. The inclusion of Superman in the post-credits scene wasn’t enough to drive sales as it was just one scene, which had already been leaked before the film’s release.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

The Shazam sequel already had to fight an uphill battle after the mediocre numbers that the original pulled in. But on top of that, Black Adam’s failure to connect with it and James Gunn’s announcement of the DCU reboot had made fans less interested in the film. Plus, the superhero fatigue had kicked in by the time it came out.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods didn’t pack any big-name stars or characters, and Wonder Woman also came in for just one scene. Furthermore, it was literally sent to die in one of the most crowded movie months of the year. As a result, it had a soft opening, made just $57 million domestically, and brought in a total of $133 million worldwide.

The sequel reportedly got a bigger budget of $125 million. But it ended up enduring huge losses because of all the aforementioned reasons.

The Flash

The Flash recently opened up with just $55 million domestically and then faced the biggest second-weekend drop for any DC movie ever. It brought in just $15 million on the second weekend, and its worldwide total reached $210 million. It was produced on a $225 million budget and will find it tough to hit the $300 million globally.

So, it has arguably become DC’s biggest flop by dethroning Justice League and Green Lantern. There were several reasons for the film’s colossal failure: one was the past controversies regarding Ezra Miller, while the other was James Gunn’s DCU reboot announcement.

It didn’t prove to be an interesting venture to the SnyderVerse fans, ran a false marketing campaign, had faulty CGI that didn’t do justice to the DC cameos and came in the most competitive month of the year, sandwiched between several potential blockbuster movies. On top of that, the film was responsible for fixing DC’s tarnished brand image when Superhero fatigue was at an all-time high.

A lot was against the film, and it just couldn’t have lived up to every bit of expectation that Warner Bros. Discovery had from it.

Now, we've got Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom as the next two DC movies. While Blue Beetle is said to be a part of the new DCU, Aquaman 2 will still belong to the old DCEU. But regardless of that, all of the previous DCEU failures could result in their box office failures as well.