The Marvel-DC movie rivalry hasn't quite reached WWE levels yet, but something tells me it's getting there. There hasn't been any direct competition between the two sides as of yet: Marvel has consistently made comparatively strong films, while DC's range from great (The Dark Knight) to stupefyingly awful (Green Lantern). But the two super powers are headed into battle in less than two years, utilizing the May 6th, 2016 slot for both Captain America 3 and Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice . And Marvel head Kevin Feige continues to not back down, in true Vince McMahon fashion.
Speaking to Empire, Feige attempts to both downplay the rivalry while also disregarding Warner Bros. completely. In the interview, Feige reiterates that Marvel is not in the business of backing down.
"So I continue to be all for quality entertainment for moviegoers to enjoy on weekends. If it is on the same weekend I enjoy it slightly less. But we are doing what we’ve always done, which is sticking to our plan and sticking to our vision for the movies going forward and we have a very large vision that we’re working on for Cap 3 and for all the threes movies and just because another movie plops down onto one of ours doesn’t mean we are going to alter that. Maybe we should, but we’re not going to."
Well then! If we're being fair, Marvel did have that date first, and it was Warner Bros. who felt the need to get competitive by scheduling Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice on the same day. While Marvel may have the leg up for now and has earned the love of die-hard fans having spent the last six years building their cinematic universe, no "don't change horses in midstream" rhetoric alters the fact that non-diehards make up the majority of the audience and could opt for the first onscreen pairing of Batman and Superman over Captain America's fifth on-screen appearance (sixth if you count Thor: The Dark World). One is pretty cool, one is, to some, a landmark occasion. Even Feige thinks so, ending this statement by suggesting they should move the date.
It's just corporate doublespeak here, the notion that Feige considers release dates part of the studio's "vision." Captain America: The Winter Soldier grossed $258 million in America, but that didn't match the $291 million nabbed by the supposedly-unliked Man Of Steel, and now Supes is added the billion-dollar Batman to his team. Meanwhile, June 2016 right now has only four release dates spoken for, and two are for a couple of shaky-looking sequels (Amazing Spider-Man 3 and How To Train Your Dragon 3). Do us a favor and don't make the fans that supported you for so long have to choose.
