Won’t someone please think of the children! Given some the comments flying around Twitter, you’d think that Warner Bros. was committing a capital crime by scheduling “Batman Vs. Superman” opposite “Captain America 3” on May 6, 2016. Providing something of a Sophie’s Choice for comic nerds on opening weekend, right now, neither WB or Marvel are budging, in a weird game of chest-puffing that will inevitably end in someone shifting dates anyway, because it doesn’t make any financial sense not to (why cannibalize your all important opening weekend audience?). But before that happens, more schoolyard taunting will have to happen.
Over at Bloomberg, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman made it clear that while the logic doesn’t add up, he’s not moving the super sequel. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense for two huge superhero films to open on the same date but there is a lot of time between now and 5/6/16,” he said. “However at this time, we are not considering a change of date for ‘Batman vs. Superman.’ ”
Perhaps WB is more concerned about the all important international box office anyway. It accounted for over 55% of the $668 million worldwide haul of “Man Of Steel,” so maybe it’s no surprise that they aren’t taking any risks there, with “Batman Vs. Superman” reportedly scheduled to open on April 29, 2016 in the U.K. — one week earlier than the U.S.
Until Marvel or WB come to their (business) senses, over at Digital Spy, “Captain America: The Winter Solider” co-director Joe Russo (who will be helming “Captain America 3” with his brother Anthony) has the most clear-headed assessment of the whole thing. “Everybody likes to imagine a flame war that’ll start over this but it’s not,” he said. “It’s two big movies on a date – neither studio is crazy enough to eat up each other’s profits. At some point, somebody’s going to move off the date.”
We’ll see what happens on May 6, 2016.