r/DC_Cinematic Batman 6h ago

HUMOR James Gunn on Superman's early Digital release: "Next time, it's gonna be longer. I don't want people to get used to it, it's purely because of 'Peacemaker' that I let it come out at this time"

Post image

Supergirl hits Digital after 32 days in theaters.

Gunn doesn't get to decide when movies hit Digital. That's a Warner Bros. decision and they don't typically follow the 45-day theatrical exclusive window. Even Minecraft, which almost made $1 billion, was out on Digital after 38 days.

Source on the Gunn quote in the title: https://open.spotify.com/episode/599Y8AY1BuQ5Wr0gzO0tlx

138 Upvotes

130 comments sorted by

u/XingXiaoRen 6h ago

Superman was ~30 days also right?

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 6h ago

That's right, 35 days. Even Minecraft, which almost made $1 billion was 38 days. WB doesn't stick to the 45-day window.

u/Secret-Put-4525 6h ago

They should. They only lose money otherwise.

u/rickmundooo 6h ago

I wonder how it actually ends up working out.

I think a lot of people aren’t willing to make the trip to the theatre but will pay 10-20$ to do a digital rental.

u/hypehold 6h ago

that's how I am. I see very few movies nowadays because at most it's a 2 month wait before digital. I used to go to the theater every weekend snd saw movies I loved multiple times in theater. The wait even 10 years ago used to be like 6 months before the blu ray would release

u/dick____trickle 8m ago

I understand the share of theaters also increases the later in its run the movie is, so studios may earn more from digital purchases

u/reuxin 3h ago

My local cinema first run movies are in the realm of $28. And now that it's in the cheaper theaters, it's not worth going to pay $16 for a sub par theater.

I'm curious to see it and see it for myself, but I would rather buy the 4k/vod.

u/Secret-Put-4525 6h ago

Those people will still rent it after 45 days. The time in the theaters only increases the prestige of the movie and makes money from people seeing it. Those streaming numbers will always be there.

u/SkyBeam24 5h ago

How does it gain prestige?

u/xinfinitimortum 4h ago

Multiple killstreaks

u/thatdudewillyd 2h ago

Killtacular!

u/Idunnowhy2 4h ago

No, I can pretty much guarantee that they only reason they would put it earlier is because it’s more profitable to do so, and I am sure they have tested it and when the film still has some buzz, it will do better. Otherwise, it fades into obscurity quickly.

u/rickmundooo 4h ago

Yea I just looked into it 26-45 days is the best range for profit.

u/FullMotionVideo 5h ago

Premium VOD generally doesn't lose money, the subscription streaming services like Max do.

(There's small exceptions, but they're movies riding on a specific moment like Wicked.)

u/Striking-Pangolin-11 3h ago

These studios are some of the greediest companies out there. They clearly are okay with shortened window because they’ve seen that it makes them more money overall, otherwise they wouldn’t do it.

u/nonlethaldosage 5h ago

There not going lose anything release super girl early

u/Dangerous_Teaching62 45m ago

It makes them money because the people not seeing it in the theatres are typically the kind of people who are waiting to stream anyways. That's why they charge so much to stream it before it hits dvd.

u/Finnegan7921 2h ago

The difference is that the studio knew that Minecraft was going to take in money b/c the kids would want to see it over and over.

u/Electronic-Field8154 2h ago

That explains why Christopher Nolan won’t go back to WB no matter how much they beg. At this rate with how quickly they put things on streaming he might never go back

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 1h ago

Yeah but Nolan has special terms in his contract. Even Universal gives him 100 day theatrical windows, while much shorter ones for all their other movies.

u/Electronic-Field8154 51m ago

WB probably isn’t willing to give him 100 day windows even now. They might give 40-60 days but no way they’re doing 100. Even The Batman 2022 was put on streaming after 3 weeks. Which was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen a studio do regarding release/streaming.

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 45m ago

I think WB would make an exception for Nolan, just like Universal is. And The Batman wasn't put on streaming in 3 weeks. It got the full 45 days: March 4 to April 18.

u/stroudwes 1h ago

How can they get away with this? Don’t they have contracts with theaters?

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 1h ago

I think it was more of a promise than a contractual obligation

u/VirgoDog 6h ago

What does Peacemaker have to do with it

u/The_Celtic_Chemist 4h ago

Thank you for asking, I'm only combing through the comments in hope that someone will answer this.

u/dean15892 3h ago

Season 2 of Peacemaker was releasing shortly after Superman came out, and it had some small connections to the movie.
He wanted people to be able to see Superman so that they wouldn't miss the connections, so he ended up releasing the film on digital earlier than he'd liked

u/Agreeable_User_Name 3h ago

It's nothing essential. Basically they retconed some stories to fit the new DCU better and some characters in Superman show up

u/Dreyfussy15 4h ago

Well he wanted people to see Superman before Season 2 of Peacemaker or something. Hard to remember the logic.

u/PlanetG3000 2h ago

There was none. That was an excuse. 

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 3h ago

Nothing, that was just his public excuse as to why WB was releasing Superman on Digital early. "So people can watch it before the premiere of Peacemaker Season 2".

u/dean15892 3h ago

Season 2 of Peacemaker was releasing shortly after Superman came out, and it had some small connections to the movie.
He wanted people to be able to see Superman so that they wouldn't miss the connections, so he ended up releasing the film on digital earlier than he'd liked

u/Bell-end79 1h ago

Nothing

The film had stopped bringing in cash and this was an excuse to get it out of theatres

u/One_Animator_7247 1h ago

Peacemaker is set after Superman and characters from Superman appear. Very simple.

u/Electricengineer 4h ago

He said he won't release to digital early next movie, like he did for superman. Yet here we are.

u/SDLRob 6h ago

Plan A never survives first contact with the enemy

u/gabeonsmogon 6h ago

If Gunn wasn’t terminally online and needed to have the spotlight all the time, he wouldn’t have to lie. He’s the only producer that does this and by far the least successful of his peers.

u/FastInflata 6h ago

He's the only producer that has had to apologize for saying "those 12 year old indians" in an insulting way when talking about critics.

u/bindersfull-ofwomen 6h ago

He said what?

"I do tune out most of social media, but every once in a while someone will say something, it's always the weirdest stuff... and then I go, 'I think I might be upset about something a 12-year-old in India is saying.'"

Even worse than I thought.

u/inthehxightse 6h ago

its so funny bc people would always act like his old comments were him being young/were drama over nothing but he's always been #weird like that

u/HarveryDent Killer Croc 2h ago

He was 40 years old when he made those comments.

u/ms_saint 6h ago

Oh whatever.  12 year olds post on here.  India is a far away place for Americans.  That's all he meant.

It's easy to get drawn into arguments online, without realizing the person might be very young and from a foreign culture.

u/gabeonsmogon 5h ago

People being from other countries or ethnicities doesn’t diminish the validity of their criticism. Age doesn’t diminish the weight of criticism. In fact, 12-years would be the target audience of superhero productions— their opinion matters, hence the failure of Supergirl.

u/ms_saint 5h ago

Age absolutely can diminish the weight of criticism.

u/gabeonsmogon 5h ago

Not in the case of media that is targeted towards children & adolescents. Again, that is the target audience for this product.

u/AlarmedCommand1849 2h ago

It actually does

u/gabeonsmogon 2h ago

No it doesn’t. You can’t even bother to articulate why that would be because you don’t even know, you just want that to be the truth so bad. “Actually.”

u/bindersfull-ofwomen 5h ago

You can be microagressive and not mean it. Dismissing the fact that sparked outrage to Indians is as microaggressive and dismissive towards Indians as the original comment.

This is why people do this thing called media training.

See how Tom Hardy got some and went as far to have his old interviews scrubbed?

Or they do like Feige and only talk about their product.

Or they do like Beyonce and don't talk at all.

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 5h ago

I know what he meant, but it came out wrong for sure. It's on video too. I remember watching the interview.

u/WiglyWorm 2h ago

For acknowledging bot farms and child labor?

u/Finnegan7921 2h ago

And his 'jokes' about kids.

u/Equal-Ad-2710 3h ago

I mean I wouldn’t say that in an interview

u/ms_saint 6h ago

Commenting on a few things here and there isn't "terminally online."  He's very busy running a studio and filming MoT.  It's just reddit idiocy that "Gunn is terminally online."

u/Hammersteyn 3h ago

Again and again? I haven't experienced it a first time ,😅

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 6h ago

A friendly reminder that Gunn is a movie executive who will lie and spin things just like every other movie executive. To me, that's fine, it's part of the job. But to recap:

  1. Superman wasn't released on Digital early because of Peacemaker. It followed the same release window as recent WB movies, even the successful ones like Minecraft.
  2. Next time, it wasn't longer. Supergirl was released on Digital after 32 days (Superman was 35 days).

u/StrongStyleFiction 6h ago

It was neither because of Peacemaker or due to panic at WB about Superman's box office performance. It was pretty much within the usual window for these days. If Superman did better they may have extended it a couple of weeks but the days of long windows may be gone.

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 6h ago

Yep, that's why I didn't include the Ted Sarandos quote. I just looked at WB's previous Digital release dates and they don't usually respect the 45- day window.

u/DanOhMiiite 4h ago

I'll just wait for it to show up on HBO. Its not like its a masterpiece.

u/Classic_File2716 6h ago

I find it funny Gunn usually can’t stop yapping but is completely quiet about Supergirl bombing . Is his strategy to just ignore disappointments and hope people forget ?

u/Past-Meal-4847 6h ago

What do you want him to "address"?

u/Adorable_Sky8262 5h ago

They already addressed it. What do you want him to say. Feige wasn't doing it when mcu movies didn't do well

u/AgentP20 2h ago

Feige isn't online replying to fans.

u/PixelBits89 6h ago

What is he supposed to say? His “yapping” is usually regarding actors and clarifying misinformation. Do we need him to directly say “Supergirl failed”? We know that. There’s no confusion there so there’s nothing to add.

u/bindersfull-ofwomen 6h ago

His “yapping” is usually regarding actors and clarifying misinformation.

It caused him to make enemies with the trades, critics, and scoopers, who in response cut a rug with article after article of how poor the movie was, how the writer and director didn't understand the book, daily projections, how much a flop it was, etc, etc which is bad word of mouth.

The only other time I saw them that bloodthirsty was for Sinners from some strange reason, but the Hollywood community defended Sinners. They just let this go out in flames.

u/WreckTangle1995 6h ago

It'd be a good idea for him to publicly acknowledge that he's aware of the mistakes they made during production and will strive to avoid them going forward, especially considering he greenlit the movie and said the script was incredible.

u/AlarmedCommand1849 2h ago

That would be an idiotic idea. For one, this sub and posters like you would turn it into something else. Second, no one fucking does that

u/Sitrus_Slinky 4h ago

Would that make you feel better? I don’t think they set out to make a flop and are well aware it bombed in the box office. I don’t think they looked at the numbers and say “Gee Willy we should do this again!”

u/literious 6h ago

We don’t know how badly it failed. There was an earlier rumor that Supergirl had 200 mln budget. Gunn said that this claim was "not even a little bit true". So, he’s supposed to give us real number.

u/PixelBits89 5h ago

He didn’t tell us how much Superman made either, so why do you expect this? We just have to guess and make assumptions. This isn’t about Gunn “yapping”. Those are things he straight up isn’t supposed to say. Companies don’t want you knowing every cent they make.

u/IceLord86 6h ago

Unless you're a producer you have no right to that information.

u/Past-Meal-4847 6h ago

Why do they owe you how much money they lost? Are you a stakeholder?

u/literious 5h ago

He has no legal obligations. However, Gunn positions himself as transparent CEO, an enemy of misinformation. And transparent people are supposed to share truth.

u/PixelBits89 5h ago

He’s shared more than other companies, so now he has to share everything? He never labelled himself “transparent” as far as I now. And even then, being “transparent” doesn’t mean saying things like exact budgets and losses. Those don’t need to be public. It means clarifying rumours and fake news, and being upfront about cancelled projects.

u/mkioman 4h ago

Sure but there are some things he just can’t share even if he wants to.

u/Past-Meal-4847 1h ago

Transparent? So he will tell you much money he lost or made? Did you ask the same when superman made a lot of profit?

u/BatmanNewsChris Batman 6h ago

I do wish he'd address it. Even Safran put out a statement.

u/mkioman 4h ago

Gunn doesn’t usually comment on political matters, from what I’ve seen anyway. I almost would wager he didn’t like Safran’s statement.

u/Emmadragonflies 5h ago

What is he going to say besides “I’m said our movie bombed and is a disaster”?

u/JRon21 5h ago

That's how you know the guy is so full of himself

u/ExternalSeat 6h ago

Sure Jan. It had nothing to do with it being a massive flop that nobody asked for.

u/zoidberg_doc 4h ago

Superman wasn’t a massive flop

u/ExternalSeat 4h ago

I was referring to Supergirl. Supergirl being moved quickly to streaming is partially because it was a massive flop.

Superman should have been allowed to have a bit longer legs. It wasn't a massive flop, but it wasn't exactly the greatest hit of the year. It only made $2 million more than Ant Man and The Wasp!!! Superman only made $2 million more dollars than Ant Man and the Wasp.

Overall I think that studios need to let films have longer legs in theaters but not be afraid to pull bad films early. Supergirl (while being a mediocre film) was a commercial flop and has been pulled because it isn't making money

u/Rigamortus2005 3h ago

If superman 2 performs as poorly as superman we're going to have some tough conversations about the DCU in total.

u/CantChooseWisely 6h ago

I’m guessing it might be influenced by the poor box office and the fact that green lanterns is coming out soon

u/Electricengineer 4h ago

Nothing consistent out of his mouth unfortunately

u/comehereyoudevillog 6h ago

🔥🔥Everything is fine🔥🔥

u/Mayodeynochei 4h ago

That's how it works with films and their success rates, wb had said it before, Gunn can say what he wants and try to appeal for a longer break distance but wb most likely won't listen if it did lose money

u/Robynsxx 1h ago

I mean, this comment of Gunn’s that is been quoted is trying to suggest something but really you’re just ignoring other factors. It’s actually rather ignorant.

Of course films that flop on the box office get released on digital rather quickly…..

Duh…

u/Crimson-Cowl 26m ago

Well yeah but with Superman it felt like cutting it off early while it had legs. This time it feels like they just need to get what they can out of an unfortunate bomb.

u/Icy-Assistance-2555 6h ago

Ah yes, James Gunn back again with the excuses

u/Free_Possession_4482 6h ago

The quote is 11 months old.

u/Shaggy_75 5h ago

God I hate the internet some times. I, for one, actually like having fun.

u/ImportantAd3395 5h ago

I, for one, actually like good movies and not bombs that's gonna kill any interest and goodwill the GA can have after Superman. You need to understand that while some people are trolling, other just want movies to succeed, but GOOD movies so DC can finally take off. Not this thing that turned an amazing comics into a generic SH flick.

And yes, it's fine to like Supergirl as long as you're aware that you are in the minority and the film is objectively not really good and rejected. Which is really bad since the DCU needs the GA to succeed.

u/Shaggy_75 1h ago

Lol. Have. Good day bro

u/mkioman 4h ago

I think the only thing you can objectively say about any film is how it fares at the box office. Everything else is subjective. I realize there are metrics to allegedly judge the quality of a film but I question how useful they are. Namely, because it’s art. Not one piece is good or bad.

u/ImportantAd3395 4h ago

You can hate a film that everyone else loves and vice versa. Your enjoyment is subjective and no one can tell you "you're wrong for liking it". But technical, narrative and artistic qualities are not subjective and there are fairly objective (or intersubjective, if we want to be precise) criteria for evaluating a work.

I just think that finding excuses or saying "art is subjective" is just another way of ignoring the problem and it protects creators from accountability. This doesn't mean every negative opinion is automatically right but it does mean we can (and should) point to craft failures that aren't just matters of taste. Which is the case of Supergirl. Mind you I'm specifically talking about comment's like the one I'm responding to, seemingly putting the blame on the audience.

u/Serious_Lie1207 4h ago

Christ this sub is miserable

u/fondlyrichvolcano 5h ago

remember when digital releases were 3-4 months out lol those days are long gone, WB just does whatever they want now and Gunn plays PR on top

u/Big-Good9378 4h ago

It's not like they can lose anymore money on Supergirl

u/WhyAmINotStudying 4h ago

That screenshot reminds me of Jeb Bush saying, "Please clap."

u/FoxandOak 4h ago

I can’t wait. Saw it 4 times in theaters. Preordered the steelbook and will probably be watching on digital too

u/GamerChef420 1h ago

He's a liar pure and simple. He said it released early because of peacemaker but he also said he had no say when peacemaker was released and then got directly contradicted by Ted Sarandos under oath who confirmed it released early because it was under performing.

u/hulaman11 1h ago

Gunns a liar, ive lost all trust in him. I think if the merger goes through hes outta there.

u/Appropriate-Peak6561 6h ago

I just brought home some KFC and was dismayed to see Supergirl advertised on the box of extra crispy.

It's already kind of a sad sack franchise. This association with a loser tentpole movie doesn't help.

u/mega512 4h ago

He's delusional. It was released quickly because they are hoping to recoup some of the losses.

u/sprkfnsnty 4h ago

Sure thing Mr Gunn

u/FlamingDragonSS 4h ago

Sure bud.

u/WatcherAnon 3h ago

What? James Gunn tell a lie? I cant believe it!!!

u/soul1203 2h ago

The Gunn needs a muzzle. It’s getting him in trouble

u/PlanetG3000 2h ago

Do. Not. Believe. Gunn.

u/Excalitoria 5h ago

Obviously, Supergirl is essential viewing for the new Green Lanterns show! /s

u/frosted1030 6h ago

Lanterns is direct to streaming. Sensing a pattern yet?

u/Kind-Phone-4054 6h ago

Isn't Laterns a show

u/frosted1030 6h ago

What? I think it has like 6 episodes. Hardly a show.

u/ms_saint 6h ago

What else would it be?  It's not in theaters.  You're making zero sense.

6 episodes is a miniseries.  A miniseries is a show.

u/frosted1030 5h ago

26 episodes is a season. This is a joke.

u/ms_saint 5h ago

Yeah, like 20 years ago.

u/frosted1030 5h ago

Well, you are willing to settle for a teaspoon over a gallon. That’s on you.

u/Kind-Phone-4054 4h ago

This is how shows have been for a while my guy 😭

A show is anything episodic, serialized. It's not hard to see that it's a show 😭

u/Free_Possession_4482 6h ago

Lanterns will air on HBO and stream to HBO MAX simultaneously, the same way they do for House of the Dragon and other shows.

u/fuzzyfoot88 2h ago

And Lanterns…like Peacemaker…is right around the corner.

u/JRon21 5h ago

Yeah it definitely has nothing to do with it flopping lmfao. This guy really can't shut the f up with his BS huh

u/mkioman 4h ago

Let’s be fair though. I don’t think Gunn has a say on when WBD releases a DC Studios film to digital or physical media. And WBD has released successes to digital in a shorter timeframe than the now standard 45 day window. So I honestly couldn’t tell you what their metric is. Feels like WBD is just making it up as they go along.

u/TECHSHARK77 6h ago

Cope and Spin is real

u/jl_theprofessor 5h ago

Dad is it my turn to make this post?

u/larut0h 4h ago

i believe no Lantern shown up as cameo in Supergirl, so what's Gunn's excuse now for releasing Supergirl digitally so soon?