Ben Affleck: There's 'a Ton of Pressure' on 'Batman v Superman' to Do Well
Every movie wants to find an audience, but big-budget movies with franchise ties and huge future plans really NEED to find an audience. A massive audience. And that audience has to like the movie enough to want to come back for sequels and tie-ins. It's currently working for Marvel's "Avengers" but what about DC? "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" comes out next year, as a follow-up to the meh-ly received "Man of Steel," and it will be followed itself by "Suicide Squad,""Wonder Woman," "Aquaman,""The Flash," a two-part "Justice League" movie, and more.
Ben Affleck is the new Batman in "Batman v Superman" and he knows a lot of eyes will be on him and the movie, especially since it's meant to include more of his Caped Crusader than Henry Cavill's Man of Steel. "I think there is a ton of pressure on it," Ben Affleck admitted to Variety. "I mean I would be bulls—ting you to say there isn't."
Warner Bros. may not have had the strongest 2015, but Affleck is confident the studio will see a turnaround in 2016, which includes the releases of both "Batman v Superman" and "Suicide Squad." As Affleck put it, "You'll see next year they are going to have a great year. They are now developing ... probably the single greatest under-exploited IP asset in the entertainment business, the DC comic world. And now they have started to exploit that and you are going to see that blossom. And, when it does, it's going to be massive."
However, Affleck knows that results have to come pretty much immediately nowadays -- in a huge opening weekend -- or there's potential for the whole thing to be tarred as a failure. "We are a very kind of instant gratification culture when it comes to analyzing the film business," he told Variety. "And there is a lot of hyperbole involved. Nonetheless, there's a lot of pressure on it. If it doesn't do well, that will be extremely disappointing."
What defines "well"? That may have to be determined next year, since blockbusters can still have massive openings (like the final "Hunger Games" movie) and get bad headlines because they didn't open as well as other films.
A lot of people are rooting for "Batman v Superman" to succeed, but there are some out there expecting and maybe even wanting it to fail. What are your hopes and expectations?
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