It’s somewhat shocking to see how badly received DC’s Extended Universe has become – especially when you compare it to Marvel movies. The brand obviously has potential – just look at the success of the comics, The Dark Knight trilogy, and even the DCEU’s own Wonder Woman movie. They have all been positively accepted by fans, and yet, the majority of films in the franchise have been panned by both fans and critics alike.
While this is a perplexing scenario, especially when the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to see success, market research tech provider ZappiStore decided to figure out why fans dislike DC films so much.
The company used an emotional recognition device called Affectiva to monitor audiences’ emotional responses to trailers for both Marvel and DC films. Interestingly the DC trailers only received a positive emotional response during scenes with action or special effects. There was very little movement when the characters appeared. As for Marvel, however, the characters were much more well processed by viewers.
What this means is that Marvel films tend to have more emotional engagement from fans, while DC films do not.
According to research architect Ernie Collings:
“We were surprised to see, across all trailers tested, that the emotional response was lower than expected for set pieces and special effects, particularly in the genre we were looking at,” Collings begins. “The results indicate the way DC can reboot and change characters across trilogies or between TV to film might be having a detrimental effect on how well the public connects with those characters.”
It’d certainly makes sense that Marvel would produce a stronger connection between fans and characters. It’s been around considerably longer and took its time with introducing characters, giving fans a chance to get to know the heroes and really understand their story arcs. DC, on the other hand, decided to rush things and quickly throw their heroes into a more grim and dark scenario. Even Superman, who’s a symbol of hope, seemed to be reduced to a Dark Knight cash-in with Man of Steel.
Perhaps Warner Bros. will take notes and be a little more careful with how they handle and serve their characters to audiences.
What do you think of this study? Do you think it’s the real reason that Marvel movies outperform DC Comics movies at the box office? Be sure to tell us your thoughts in the comments!