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The weekend gross is in for Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ highly anticipated superhero epic Green Lantern, and things are not looking good for our favorite emerald ring bearer. While Green Lantern did nab the top spot at the box office last weekend, it only grossed $53 million domestically, and fell far short of recovering both Warner Bros.' budget and expectations for the film.

WHY GREEN LANTERN UNDERPERFORMED

There is a legitimate possibility that this film will be the only live-action Green Lantern movie released for a while. Raising questions such as, "what does this mean for the future of big screen adaptations of other DC Comics characters outside of Batman and Superman," and "what is the secret Marvel Comics has that is getting their recent films critical and commercial acclaim?"

Green Lantern was a film that the masses were very much looking forward to, even winning "Most Anticipated Movie" in last year’s Los Angeles Scream Awards aired on Spike TV. Now I realize Spike TV is not the end all be all of accurate information, but there was definitely a strong buzz about the film. 

After the first official trailer was released and Ryan Reynolds appeared in full costume on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, some concerns were raised over the liberties the filmmakers were taking with the Green Lantern suit; producing it exclusively through computer generation.

Through the debut of more footage and previews, hype seemed to pick up again getting closer to the June 17th release date. The advertisements pouring through our computer screens, and television sets, were getting us ready for the Green Lantern's big screen reveal.

It even seemed like the entire NBA Playoffs were sponsored by Green Lantern.  After a press day for the film, many of the people involved with the movie continuously called it this generation’s Star Wars, which is kind of an odd statement since this generation already has 3 Star Wars movies.  And those were great!  Right Anakin?

Jedi Death Stare

After all the attention and hype the film received, June 17th finally rolled around, and so did the hate of critics. On the review aggregator, rottentomatoes.com, the movie currently has a 26 percent positive rating from critics. Adjacent to the main score, is a stat that reveals 58 percent of the audience that saw the film actually liked it, and Green Lantern has an average of 3.4/5 stars based on 80,693 user ratings.

Without question, the negative reviews that film critics gave the movie contributed to the failure of Green Lantern at the box office.  I’m sure that a lot of people who were probably going to see it, or were on the fence about it, were turned off by the negative reaction they saw in newspapers and online write-ups. 

The moviegoers who already decided they were going to be present at the theater for the films debut seems to be the majority of people who saw it, failing to draw in a larger number of casual fans needed to be a broad  success. Something that Marvel Studios did with “Iron Man” back in 2008.

MARVEL MOVIES

Speaking of which, Iron Man began the huge connecting story arch that continues in all the recently released Marvel Studios films, building up to the big Avengers movie next year featuring: Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America among other smaller Marvel Comics characters. This summer, three Marvel movies have graced the silver screen: Thor, X-Men: First Class and next month's Captain America.

The question here is, if  Thor could make as much money as it did, then why not Green Lantern? 

Frankly, Thor was the superior film to Green Lantern in my opinion.  It had a better story, better characters, and a star in Chris Hemswoth that was a better fit for Thor than Ryan Reynolds was for Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.These two films are very comparable since both their main characters hit the movie theaters for the first time, and Thor wins in almost every category.

Green Lantern director Martin Campbell had limited experience producing a film so heavily composed in CG, which could explain the clumsy way the CG is used in the film. Conversely, Thor director Kenneth Branagh seemed at home working within the Thor universe, an almost Shakespearean construct that he has had time to perfect through his previous films Henry V and Hamlet. The cast and crew involved with Thor all seem to slip into their roles easier than the cast and crew from Green Lantern.

All that aside, the numbers speak for themselves: 

As of June 26, Thor has grossed $436,788,239 worldwide with a budget of $150,000,000 to produce, in comparison to Green Lantern's haul of $118,711,000 with a budget of over $200,000,000. While the total gross of Thor has a month lead over the earnings of Green Lantern, comparisons between opening weeks of the two films show that Green Lantern is performing at a much slower pace.

Budgetary use can be attributed to another reason for the success of Thor. Marvel Studios' self-awareness that it was a risk to release a movie that featured a character not widely known to the general populace, spurred them to invest less money. A fiscal maneuver that paid off in box office dividends. 

With Green Lantern, DC and Warner Bros. should have followed a similar, "less is more" path. Green Lantern is a character known to plenty of the population, but a theatrical motion picture had never been produced. A scaled-back production with more conservative budget choices may have yield better box office returns for Warner Bros., who have found quickly that the green in Green Lantern is not translating into money.

The story with X-Men: First Class is a little different. While not in canon with the current Avengers story arch, First Class found success by building upon previous films in its franchise as a prequel/semi-reboot. While most of the cast in First Class was forgettable, with the exception of Michael Fassbender as Magneto, they all seemed more effective in serving their roles. 

In addition, the film's redaction of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis helped give the film a quasi-realistic feel, and the ever present theme of prejudice in the life of the X-men allow an empathetic connection for the mutants because of its real-world relevance.

With Green Lantern there is little to nothing that draws you into Hal Jordan fighting the good fight. A level of disconnect is present through poor development on an emotional level between viewers and the titular character. That feeling of common sentiment is teased with, in a short scene, but never fully developed. Like Thor, X-Men: First Class has its own set of flaws, but succeeds in core areas where Green Lantern fails; creatively and  fiscally.

Currently, X-Men: First Class has grossed a worldwide profit of $317,215,000, with a budget of around $160,000,000 to produce. Thus far this summer, that’s Marvel: 2, DC: 0. Let us also not forget that the success of the X-Men franchise really started all the superhero films we are seeing now, so a debt will always be owed to Professor Xavier’s finest. 

Next year also sees the The Amazing Spider-Man reboot, which reassures that Marvel’s movie landscape is looking infinitely healthier than the one at DC Comics.

DC MOVIES’ LANDSCAPE

With Green Lantern being a financial letdown, the future is more uncertain than ever for other DC Comics characters to get their own motion picture. Unless there is another fluke similar to what happened with 2004’s Catwoman and 2010’s Jonah Hex.

Legendary and great characters like The Flash, Wonder Woman and even a potential Justice League movie may have all been ruined because of Green Lantern’s lack of drawing power. When Warner Bros. take a look at the earnings of Green Lantern, they will see a noticeable difference from other superhero movies released by both themselves and Marvel. That, in turn, tells them that there is not a lot of interest from the public to spend money on seeing a lesser known hero like a Green Lantern or a Green Arrow for example. Thus, they will not make the film and we may never see DC take the plunge into the cinema that Marvel has been delving into with their characters. We do know that plans were moving forward for a Green Lantern sequel before the release of the original last week.  That, I would imagine, is in serious question now.  Scripts were also being written for a Flash and Justice League film, but only time will tell if those ideas are to be scrapped along with the hopes of fanboys and girls everywhere. 

Positive things right now for DC are next summer’s sure to be moneymaker The Dark Knight Rises and the new Zack Snyder directed, Christopher Nolan produced Superman film, Man of Steel.

With legal battles still looming for the Superman character rights, I would not hold my breath on the Christmas season 2012 release date.  Hopes are high for this next Superman film, which much like Green Lantern, will determine the character’s future in cinema.

CONCLUSION

So there you have it.  I can only hold on to a slight chance of optimism that Warner Bros. will give Green Lantern another shot in theaters.  The poor box office performance is a cold slap to the face that may have brought DC fans back to reality.  But, we can always think positive when it comes to other DC characters getting the Hollywood treatment, such as the sure to be excellent The Dark Knight Rises.

Check back in a few weeks for my summer movie analysis where I rank all the comic book movies released this summer.

Check out the original Green Lantern review here:

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