Justice League drops the ball. The Punisher racks up a bodycount.

What Warner Brothers and DC touted as their answer to Marvel's The Avengers, Justice League pulled in a terrible box office on its opening weekend. Original estimates were set around $120 Million, then adjusted to $110 Million after the blockbuster success of Thor: Ragnarok. Unfortunately, Justice League didn't even hit that lower goal. Opening nationwide on Friday, Justice League made a feeble $94 Million. This places Justice League, which was meant to be the grand centerpiece of the DCU, at the bottom of the list of domestic opening weekend box office hauls. 

• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice = $166 million
• Suicide Squad = $133.7 million
• Man of Steel = $116.6 million
• Wonder Woman = $103.3 million
• Justice League = $94 million

I have not yet seen Justice League, so this is in no way a brainoutloud review. This entry is about the disastrous state that Warner Brothers and DC have found themselves in, yet again. With the movie attaining an awful 41% on rottentomatoes it is once again apparent that these movies have a serious problem with tone, plot, and characterization. Considering the amount of money already spent, the DC Universe will most likely continue on its current path, despite all the downfalls. Unlike Marvel who laid their slate of films out far in advance, DC only makes official plans for a few films at a time. Next up Aquaman in 2018, then Shazam in 2019 and Wonder Women 2 in 2020. This also differs from Marvel who releases 3 movies a year now.

Warner Brothers slower schedule may be able to save the franchise. Following up the Justice League flop with Aquaman, arguably the least popular member of the ensemble, will most likely not go well. Even as an unpopular joke of a superhero, at least most of the general public know who Aquaman is. Shazam, on the other hand, is a complete stranger. DC knows this and have cast the extremely popular Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Black Adam, the film's antagonist. Johnson may not be enough to save that film though, outside of the Fast and Furious franchise, his efforts are by no means blockbuster hits. Aquaman has wrapped production, so that will release as scheduled. DC can take a moment before production begins on Shazam to adjust their plans and once again do a soft reboot of the franchise.

With a production budget that soared to over $300 Million due to Joss Whedon's massive amount of re-shoots, an advertising budget of $150 Million, and a plethora of other expenses, the film's final budget is a reported $600 Million. This means the movie would have to join the exclusive company of billion-dollar blockbusters like Avatar, Star Wars The Force Awakens, and The Avengers, to turn a profit. This is extremely unlikely. As with most movies the box office will decrease by at least half on its second weekend. It could be far worse if you remember Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice set the record for first Friday to second Friday drop off with a staggering 81.6%. So, Justice League could realistically make as much as $47 Million to as little as $17 Million. Regardless, the Disney/Pixar animated Coco is expected to outperform Justice League over the Thanksgiving weekend. When all is said and done, Justice League could lose Warner Brothers over $100 Million.

I'll say it one more time, get rid of Zack Snyder.  

The Punisher premiered on Netflix with a 61% score on rottentomatoes, last Friday. Most seemed to criticize the slow crawl of the 13-hour series, which I can agree with. The Marvel Netflix shows should be 8 episodes long, tops. The excessive violence and blood was an issue for some, but that is the core of the character. John Bernthal was great as Frank Castle, but again the smaller dose of Bernthal in the second season of Daredevil was more compelling. Overall I enjoyed the show and look forward to what happens next in the small corner of the MCU.

SPOILER ALERT! What was off-putting was the deliberate lack of MCU crossover and Easter eggs. Other than Karen Page, Turk, and a few other ancillary characters, there was no interaction between The Punisher and the other Netflix series. Excluding some newspaper clippings in Karen Page's office, there was no mention of the larger MCU at all. For example, in a scene where they could have effortlessly mentioned the Chitauri invasion that devastated New York City in The Avengers the character invokes the terrorist attack on 9/11 instead. I didn't even catch the poster of Stan Lee in a police uniform that has been present in the other series that lead up to and including The Defenders.

Furthermore, The Punisher does not introduce any additional Marvel superheroes. Rumors swirled for months but nerds were left disappointed. Especially considering the front runners were Blade and Moon Knight. Introducing new characters is one way Marvel gets the audience to binge from one show to the next. This disjointed approach also skewed the critic's reviews and I can agree.

If the Marvel series transfer over to the Disney service, as expected, perhaps they can tweak them a bit, weave better connections, introduce more characters and shorten the runtime.