Warner Bros. president talks Batman v Superman move and future announcements

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

When Warner Bros. bumped up the release date of BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE to March 25 of 2016, it was looked upon as some sort of “defeat” on DC’s part. There was no way that both BATMAN V SUPERMAN and CAPTAIN AMERICA 3 were going to open on the same day so it was just a matter of waiting to see which studio would “blink” first. In the end I’m sure there will be no defeat on Warner Bros. end as BATMAN V SUPERMAN is bound to gross boatloads, but President of Domestic Distribution Dan Fellman had a few words to say regarding the move.

Dan Fellman on why Warner Bros. chose May 6, a date already claimed by Marvel, to begin with:

In terms of going back and reviewing the situation, it looked to us—and maybe our reconnaissance wasn’t great—that they were not going to have a movie [ready] on that date. Just that they held onto it and they might not be able to deliver. But they took another position.

Dan Fellman on why they chose to bump the release up:

The reality now is there really isn’t a bad week to open a movie. If you look at the summer box office this year, you can see that there were so many movies, one after the other. You can start with Spider-Man, two weeks later GODZILLA, and then MALEFICENT, and then EDGE OF TOMORROW, and then Jump Street and Transformers. And the one thing they all had in common, not one of them did over $250 million. We’ll be the first one up [in 2016], which is very important, and we’ll have six weeks before Captain America comes in.

Now, I’m no president of domestic distribution, but stating that there is “no bad week to release a film”? I’m not sure the fact that those films didn’t make over $250 supports that argument, but whatever. Warner Bros. has a secure date and Fellman also teased that we may hear some announcements very soon about the line-up of DC release dates. If you recall, an Untitled WB Event Film is scheduled for 11/16/18. Seems likely that may apply to the JUSTICE LEAGE film. The question is, can Warner Bros. deliver not only a Justice League film on that date (two and a half years after the release of BATMAN V SUPERMAN), but also a total of FIVE other DC flicks in-between? Or is possible that JUSTICE LEAGUE might arrive even sooner? Fellman seems confident in the schedule thus far. My only guess is that Warner Bros. is waiting for some contracts to be signed before official announcements are made. After all, doesn’t Dwayne Johnson as Shazam seem all but official at this point?

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE will be released on March 25, 2016.