Sorry, folks, but part of writing, for me, is speaking truth to power. It’s taking harsh truths and exposing them, presenting them for scrutiny and observation, thereby allowing all who have witnessed it to enact plans and strategies to remedy whatever the problem may be.
Much like President Biden’s 2019 campaign, I’m not here for malarkey. And what’s been tearing at me lately is the notion that, now that James Gunn is at the helm, Warner Bros and the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) will be able to right a wayward ship, change course for the better, and steer a flagging ship towards calmer (and preferably more profitable) seas. Unfortunately for the five upcoming DCEU films slated for release in the next two years, that’s just not the case. The cold, hard fact of the matter is this: the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), despite its faults, is clearly the better comic book film franchise. And this is measurable in most every metric.
For one, the MCU consistently outperforms the DCEU monetarily. Check out some charts. According to Medium, Marvel has proven itself the more lucrative cinematic universe based on box office alone. While DCEU films like 2018’s Aquaman or 2017’s Wonder Woman certainly had notable receipts, they pale in comparison to many of Marvel’s most well-known products.
Note, for example, that, as of 2023, Aquaman is the only DCEU film to make over a billion dollars at the box office (since they are not a part of the official DC cinematic universe, films like Joker and Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy are considered standalone DC properties). Meanwhile, the MCU boasts a club of ten films that have garnered at least a billion dollars, with the highest grossing Avengers: Endgame raking in nearly $3 billion worldwide. It would seem that, based on this alone, the MCU has something appealing to a larger mass of audiences. DC will always have its fans, yes, but something about the MCU seems to invite new viewers — this despite the fact that it’s essentially a 32-film episodic series that’d take 110 hours to watch all the way through.
Still, Medium notes that, on average, DCEU films will only make about $187 million less than MCU films, with this being the difference between $500 million and $687 million. Not small numbers by any reasonable metric. That said, this is the problem with averages: they don’t always give the full story. While it is true that this is what the numbers add up to, this doesn’t take into account Marvel’s output versus DC’s. As stated earlier, the MCU has 32 films and even more television projects. It was almost assured that some of these (looking at you, Eternals) would be flops.
Contrast this with the DCEU’s 15 movies. The smaller sample size makes it easier for DC’s biggest winners (Aquaman, Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman) to buoy its worst losers (Shazam 2, The Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman 1984). I’m willing to bet that, should the MCU stop making movies now (and superhero fatigue dictates that may happen sooner rather than later) and DC were to add 17 films to its roster, the DCEU films would still, on average, consistently perform worse than the MCU.
Of course, money isn’t everything. Just because something makes a lot of money doesn’t mean it was worth the price of admission. Indeed, the vox populi may just be the braying of a million idiots. But then there are the critical accolades.
Take a look at Rotten Tomatoes’ breakdown of Marvel and DC critical scores. I know, I can already hear you saying, “It clearly says DC won by a slight margin.” Correct, and I’ll get to that later. But, observant reader, please also look at the top ten chart Rotten Tomatoes provides. Not counting Spider-Man 2 or Logan (a Sony and a Fox project, respectively, taking them out of the MCU), Marvel still accounted for half of the highest-rated comic book films. DC, on the other hand, certainly made the list with classics like The Dark Knight and 1978’s Superman, but, of its DCEU output, only Wonder Woman made the cut.
So, 50% versus 10%. Tell me, which one would you bet on next given the odds based on past performance? Yes, yes, DC (at the time of the article’s 2017 publication) just barely eked out a winning percentage with an average 67.7% Fresh score versus Marvel’s 64.1%. But, again, sample size and averages can interact with each other in wonky ways. And, also, since this set of data takes into account older DC films, I’m willing to bet that the DCEU placed against the MCU would have a wildly different outcome. It wouldn’t even be a fair competition.
Ultimately, the question of Marvel versus DC will continue for as long as there are comic book nerds to pose the question. DC has given the world iconic superheroes that have changed the face of pop culture. Action Comics #1 and its introduction of Superman will rightfully remain designated as the vanguard of a new, fruitful era: the Golden Age of Comics. Batman, whether he’s being played for laughs in the 1960s or portrayed as deadly serious for the new millennium, will always garner a notable level of interest. No one can take away the mark DC has left on America’s, and therefore much of the world’s, popular interests.
That said, the DCEU will be a nadir in that long legacy.
For all its faults, predictability, and over-quippyness, the MCU has proven itself a blueprint to success that few production studios can effectively replicate. This is not to close the book on DC versus Marvel because to presume to be able to do that would be ludicrous. But this is to say that, when it comes to DCEU versus MCU, all one can say is, “The numbers don’t lie.”
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