https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2017/12/01/the-grim-irony-of-justice-league-earning-less-than-man-of-steel/#85595d43c8e6

Scott Mendelson , CONTRIBUTOR
I cover the film industry.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

For those who just came for the update, Justice League has ended its second week of domestic release with $180.759 million. The DC Films superhero team-up movie has made, in 14 days, just over/under what Captain America: Civil War earned in its first weekend ($179m), what Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice earned ($181m) in four days, what Man of Steel earned ($181m) in eight days and what Suicide Squad earned ($179m) in its first week. Depending on how it does this weekend, we're still looking at a domestic total over/under Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ($234m).

Its overseas numbers had been comparatively better, but that just means it'll probably end up closer to $650 million global than $600m. And yeah, that's pretty awful all things considered, with the caveat that Warner Bros. looked at the film as a soft reboot and the start of something as opposed to a culminating chapter. Nonetheless, there is a cruel irony in all of this.

If you recall, Warner Bros. began on this path, with Man of Steel 2 becoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, after Man of Steel "only" made $668 million worldwide. And now Justice League will indeed struggle to match that global total while not coming anywhere close to the first Superman movie's $291m domestic cume. Again, I keep thinking back to The Matrix series.

The first Wachowski and Wachowski-directed sci-fi actioner earned $171 million domestic and $463m worldwide in the spring of 1999. At the time, it was WB's second-biggest global earner behind Twister ($494m). And four years later, The Matrix Reloaded was a prototypical breakout sequel, earning $134m in its Thurs-Sun debut. But audiences weren't super keen on the more philosophical and ponderous sequel and the legs were... short. Nonetheless, the film earned $281m domestic and $742m worldwide, setting records for an R-rated film.

Now money is money, but the poor reaction to The Matrix Reloaded gave way to a disastrous performance for The Matrix Revolutions just six months later. That trilogy capper earned $84 million in its Wed-Sun debut and flatlined almost immediately, earning $134m domestic and $421m worldwide. So, yes, in this case, part 3 actually made less than part 1 after the mega-grossing but super-divisive part 2 alienated general audiences.

It's not an exact comparison. Folks like The Matrix a lot more than Man of Steel (and for that matter, I'll defend both Matrix sequels unto death). But while Warner Bros. may have wanted a run closer to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Bourne series or the first three X-Men movies (up and up and up), they instead ended up with a series that both overtly peaked with the second chapter and ended on a major whimper like The Matrix or The Hangover.

And of course, The Matrix Revolutions (which still made nearly three times its budget in theatrical) was the end of a saga, Justice League was supposed to be the beginning of one. Through that prism, you can argue that WB and friends would have been better off just letting Zack Snyder make whatever movie he wanted to make. They could have merely offered this current underperformer as the end of a given chapter before the next wave of DC Films movies modeled more on Wonder Woman than Dawn of Justice.

In regards to that report over at The Wrap the other day which detailed the various post-Dawn of Justice struggles to get Justice League into theaters by mid-November, at the end of the day there wasn't a perfect solution. But, in hindsight, I would argue that the choice was either to delay Justice League and dump Zack Snyder right after Batman v Superman debuted to withering reviews and poor legs or just let Snyder make the movie he wanted to make with the full knowledge that this would be the end of the first arc of the DC Films story. But the error was in trying to have it both ways.

It's hard to imagine Snyder's preferred version doing any worse at the global box office, and I imagine a lot of money might have been saved without reshoots and recuts, to say nothing of a better reception with more polished special effects. So instead of a $200 million+ Justice League struggling to top $650m worldwide, you've got an alleged $250-$300m Justice League struggling to top $650m worldwide. And yeah, as shocking as it is in hindsight, we have a situation where the studio threw Batman into the Man of Steel sequel and turned it into a backdoor Justice League pilot only to now have a Justice League that will probably make less than Man of Steel.

The only thing more ironic than Wonder Woman outgrossing Justice League would be Man of Steel outgrossing Justice League, since that film's "meh" reception is what got this crazy ball rolling in the first place. Well, that and the skewed notion of the DC Films brand being saved, not by Batman and Superman, but by Wonder Woman and Aquaman. And yeah, Warner Bros. will end 2017 with two of the most outlandish whiffs (Justice League and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) and two of the most jaw-droppingly buzzy hits (Wonder Woman and It) of the year.