Surely you’ve seen the reviews of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. No? Well, they say the movie is very bad. And yet, the second film in DC’s world-building effort scored an astounding weekend global box office, coming in at more than $424 million.
Our own Jason Bailey predicted this, saying in his review that the film is “relentlessly stupid, sluggishly executed, tedious claptrap,” adding, “and I’m sure it’ll make a bajillion dollars.”
As the BBC points out, this is the fourth-highest global opening ever, dispelling the misconception that a movie has to be good to make a ton of money. On a better note, it also serves as a counterpoint to Deadpool‘s record-breaking run in February, as that film’s success had a lot of folks worried that it would lead to a trend in R-rated superhero flicks that featured frat boy language and, in the grossest case of plagiarism, the blurry, charred genitals of protagonists.
Zack Snyder’s success pretty much guarantees he’ll continue on to helm the already-in-the-works Justice League films, as well as the pile of films that are set to follow: Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Aquaman. Its success also begs the question: If a movie has a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, yet still breaks box office records, what is the point of Rotten Tomatoes? It’ll be interesting to see if this film has legs or if the negative reviews will catch up to it, but, for now, caped crusaders are still safe bets for Hollywood, no matter how drab the vehicle.