WAR OF THE CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: MARVEL vs DC vs STAR WARS
Marvel, DC, and Star Wars? What do these three have in
common? They’re all some form of a cinematic universe. A cinematic universe is
a shared fictional universe that is the setting of a franchise’s interrelated
films.
For a detailed explanation, sequels don’t qualify to make up a
cinematic universe, instead, there should be multiple movies (at least three)
working together as pieces of a jigsaw. And when put together, should form a
larger narrative.
Criteria to
Qualify as A Cinematic Universe
With that explained, I believe you understand the concept of
a cinematic universe. And that brings us to the question of the day, why are
some cinematic universes doing better than others.
In the cinematic universe world, Marvel, DC, and Star Wars
are the big three, with millions of loyal fans but it’s a no-brainer that the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU, is the most popular and successful among the
three.
The MCU is so successful that it has four movies in the top
10 All-Time Worldwide Box Office, with Avengers: Endgame being the highest-grossing movie of all time around 2019 before it was dethroned by James
Cameroon’s Avatar following its rerelease in China.
The MCU has a record of 15 years since any of its movies
grossed below $300m which was in 2008 when The Incredible Hulk grossed over
$2.7m. Safe to say, the MCU has had a financial success run.
With the MCU’s success discussed, it’s not wrong to wonder
what it is that the other cinematic universes are doing wrong that makes them
less successful than the MCU. Mind you, I’m not saying that the MCU is perfect as
they’ve had fluctuations in their critics and financial success recently, yet,
they’re still at the top. So, let’s discuss what these other cinematic
universes could be doing wrong.
Owned by the same parent company as Marvel Entertainment,
Disney, it comes as a big blow that the Star Wars Universe is not on par with
its brother the MCU. They also share similar budgets for their movies, so if the
crisis isn’t from the production budget, then what could it be?
Star Wars is famous for its near-perfect CGI, and the
Darth Vader saga, as the Sith Lord is considered one of the most famous
villains in movie history. Despite all this, it’s not as popular and successful
as the MCU.
Well, this could be because it’s not grounded on Earth like
the MCU, but on fictional planets and galaxies, with a vast species of
intelligent creatures, which can be painful to keep up with. Not to mention, in
the Star Wars universe, there are a lot of overlapping events that can be
ambiguous for new fans to keep up with, and this scares people away. Hence, the
low popularity.
Owned by Warner Bros Entertainment, DC or DC Extended
Universe, DCEU is the third member of the big three cinematic
universes and is arguably as popular as the MCU. In fact, it’s considered Marvel’s rival, yet, it’s not successful as the MCU financially, why?
Well, this can be attributed to two things. One the over-involvement of Warner Bros, two, the obvious lack of direction in the DCEU.
As discussed earlier, the movies in a cinematic universe, when put together,
should work together to form a larger narrative, but that’s not the case in the
DCEU.
Before I conclude, a bonus point to note that could be
hindering the DCEU’s success is the unprofessionalism, and drama among its
actors. A good example is the Ezra Miller case, among some other on-set dramas.
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