Warner Brothers studios has a lot banking on the upcoming DC superhero movie Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice to do well at the box office. That's why, in order to play with their numbers and set off the movie on better footing, it was decided to push back the movie's release date from July to March 2016 instead.
Its a telling move for the studio whose past few films have not brought in the big bucks as they has initially been hoping for.
The big-budget Guy Ritchie spy flick, for example, made a dissappointing $13.4 million domestically on its opening weekend and did not fare much better internationally, and none of Warners' other 2015 summer movies, as well, managed to pull in $500 million worldwide.
Reports say that Warners' new production chief, Greg Silverman, who took over the role when Kevin Tsujihara was promoted to CEO in March 2013, is taking the heat for the studios' dissappointing run of movies lately.
“He's paying the price for a bad run of movies, even though he wasn't central to greenlighting them... But he's also been a Warners too long to run away from them,” observed Silverman's ex-colleague.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's release date is just one of the rumored moves that Silverman is trying to make to “steal [Universal Studios'] thunder,” as it was.
Universal Studios has been dominating the box office lately, especially with their highly successfull film franchises such as The Hobbit, The Dark Knight, and Harry Potter.
Despite the seemingly bleak numbers, CEO Tsujihara says that he has confidence in his team and although would have preferred a July release, is still supportive of the decision to push it back to March.
“I'm extremely confident it was the right decision to make movie better, and it's so important for the studio to get the foundation right for DC,” he said in an exclusive to The Hollywood Reporter.
Don't forget to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
