Why Marvel’s Connected Universe Succeeded and DC’s Failed

There is no question that Marvel Cinematic Universe is the biggest powerhouse at the box office today. Last year the MCU captured three of the top five box office trophies with Captain Marvel (#5, $1.1B), Spider-Man: Far From Home (#4, $1.1B), and Avengers: Endgame (#1, $2.8B).

By comparison the DC Extended Universe hasn’t done nearly as well, especially in their first phase which was a relative flop, culminating with Justice League whose receipts were only $658M. So what happened? DC’s characters are just as iconic with just as many celebrated print storylines to mine for movie plots.

What parts of Marvel’s playbook did DC fail to copy?

Diverse talent with a single showrunner

Most of the MCU sub-franchises have their own directors with producer Kevin Feige overseeing them all. This helps the films develop their own voices while still maintaining elements that make them feel of a whole.

James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films focused the dysfunctions of their makeshift family the characters formed. The Russo brothers added elements of political intrigue to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man was a heist movie. Jon Watts told a teenaged coming-of-age story with Spider-Man: Homecoming.

DC went all in on Zack Snyder. After delivering his dark and brooding version of Superman with Man of Steel, the director was then given the reigns to all of the core films of the DCEU, including Batman v Superman, Justice League and the canceled Justice League sequel. Snyder’s vision defined the DCEU through its early years, so when Warner Bros decided to go in another direction, there wasn’t much to build upon.

Connect all of the movies, but do so gently

Each MCU movie is its own story with elements that acknowledge the larger universe. The supporting cast members like Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, and Black Widow often appear in various films with the different headliners (thankfully Black Widow will finally get to be her own headliner soon) and there are often subplots introduced that bleed into each other, especially to set up the next big Avengers team-up movie.

But Snyder’s DCEU entries all felt like direct sequels to each other, and they worked hard to introduce major plot developments for future films. Batman v Superman shoehorned in introductions for all of the Justice League characters (including an odd appearance by The Flash who’s dialog was clearly meant to be paid off by a now-canceled sequel), and did a clumsy job of trying to include Wonder Woman who ultimately didn’t have anything meaningful to do.

Have patience

The DCEU’s Batman didn’t get his own film to develop his character, it just dropped him in Superman’s sequel with an obsession with killing his rival. Justice League had to do the work of establishing the characters of Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash while also setting up its ultimately forgettable plot and bad guy, so these heroes ended up feeling like unknown quantities. Their standalone films were planned for after the big team-up movie.

Marvel gave Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and The Hulk each their own film before The Avengers, with the remaining major characters peppered throughout those preceding films, including Loki, the film’s villain. By the time The Avengers rolled around we as an audience were already invested in the players involved and were excited to see what they would do when put together.

Even greater patience was taken to bring the team’s greatest villain into the picture. First teased in The Avengers in 2012, it took seven years for Thanos to finally make his move, which proved to be victorious, leaving half the universe dead for a full year. Finally in 2019 the Avengers were finally able to regroup and defeat the Mad Titan in Endgame. Watching this long-simmering plot finally reach its conclusion was compelling journey for fans who were rewarded with a massively satisfying conclusion.

To be fair DC’s big villain Darkseid was teased in BvS but I’m skeptical that the character would have been done the justice that Thanos was, especially after another of DC’s great supervillains, Doomsday, was wasted as a third act plot device.

Keep the quality bar high

Up to and including Justice League, only one of the DCEU films, Wonder Woman, managed a fresh rating on the Tomato Meter. BvS and Suicide Squad were especially dismal with 27% and 26% respectfully.

Marvel on the other hand has released 23 movies all of which have managed to earn a fresh rating, though The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World just barely eked theirs out. Ten MCU movies have scores in the 90s and Black Panther was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

Feige has proven to have an excellent eye for talented filmmakers and by and large these filmmakers have delivered. When the results have proven mediocre, he hands the reigns for that character to someone else to chart a new course such as Taika Waititi with Thor: Ragnarok.

So what’s next for DC?

DC has shifted away from their connected universe and is giving its filmmakers greater autonomy. There seems to be a stronger focus on quality and I’m optimistic about what the future holds, but I’m also disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be any overarching narrative thread building up to a big payoff. This appears to be a reaction to the fact that Aquaman did very little to acknowledge the broader world of the DCEU and yet was the project’s biggest success to date with a box office of $1.1B globally.

I think that DC should focus more on all of the elements that has made Marvel successful in order to delight fans and maybe have a shot at that Avengers money.