Motion Pictures Deserve A Batwoman Movie

[Bartmanhomer]

As the upcoming TV show Batwoman is coming this fall, Motion Pictures deserve a Batwoman movie. What do you think about this movie?

[Hopeless]

Would it adopt the same agendas or be a legitimate attempt at a good movie?

[Bartmanhomer]

Would it adopt the same agendas or be a legitimate attempt at a good movie?

What do you mean by that?

[Mechalich]

The economics of film-making do not yet support a Batwoman film. Large superhero blockbusters featuring Marvel or DC heroes are expensive, with even relatively low-budgeted features clocking in at around $100 million (the price for Shazam!, for example). At that price point a film requires upwards of $300 million in global box office receipts to break even between budget, marketing, and the reduced ticket-sharing deals in foreign markets. Shazam! notably, made $364 million globally and is a very marginal success by most estimates, and Shazam is actually a fairly prominent DC hero. Batwoman is something like 5th on the list in prominence among the Bat-subfamily of DC heroes (behind Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and Batgirl, at least, and possibly behind Alfred Pennyworth as well) putting her extremely far down the list on the DC slate. Additionally she's not a humorous character, Bat-type heroes being some of the bleakest mainstream comic book supers, meaning any Batwoman movie would have to be played straight rather than as a laugh-a-minute parody as in the case of something like Deadpool - by far the most effective low-budget superhero film in recent years. The math simply doesn't add up for movies.

TV is easier, the CW has a formula for 'Arrowverse' shows (and related properties like Black Lightning) that is able to churn out one property after another at a reasonable price point to appeal to a dedicated fanbase with interconnected plots and a vaguely teen soap style that has found a proven lane and sticks to it, but with the doesn't-really-count exception of The Flash's appearance in Justice League (since it wasn't the same iteration of the character) no Arrowverse character has crossed over to the big screen, despite several being considerably more prominent that Batwoman. Supergirl, for instance, is a far more likely choice to appear in a movie alongside Superman before any hypothetical Batwoman film. In general the heavier and slower-developing pathos of Batman-type characters (which surely includes the Arrow, who's mostly just Batman in green with a bow) seems better suited for long-running TV series than single-shot super hero movies where the trend is toward breezy, funny, flashy storylines both in Marvel, land of endless quips, and now in DC, whose biggest success to date is the rollicking Aquaman.

The character of Batwoman is unlikely to appear in a live-action film until DC manages to get a new series of Batman films going and can expand out the bat family to eventually include Batwoman, as she was included in the 2016 animated film Batman: Bad Blood, a film that also included Nightwing, Robin, and several other Bat-associated characters. I wouldn't hold you breath for that to happen anytime soon.

[Bartmanhomer]

The economics of film-making do not yet support a Batwoman film. Large superhero blockbusters featuring Marvel or DC heroes are expensive, with even relatively low-budgeted features clocking in at around $100 million (the price for Shazam!, for example). At that price point a film requires upwards of $300 million in global box office receipts to break even between budget, marketing, and the reduced ticket-sharing deals in foreign markets. Shazam! notably, made $364 million globally and is a very marginal success by most estimates, and Shazam is actually a fairly prominent DC hero. Batwoman is something like 5th on the list in prominence among the Bat-subfamily of DC heroes (behind Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and Batgirl, at least, and possibly behind Alfred Pennyworth as well) putting her extremely far down the list on the DC slate. Additionally she's not a humorous character, Bat-type heroes being some of the bleakest mainstream comic book supers, meaning any Batwoman movie would have to be played straight rather than as a laugh-a-minute parody as in the case of something like Deadpool - by far the most effective low-budget superhero film in recent years. The math simply doesn't add up for movies.

TV is easier, the CW has a formula for 'Arrowverse' shows (and related properties like Black Lightning) that is able to churn out one property after another at a reasonable price point to appeal to a dedicated fanbase with interconnected plots and a vaguely teen soap style that has found a proven lane and sticks to it, but with the doesn't-really-count exception of The Flash's appearance in Justice League (since it wasn't the same iteration of the character) no Arrowverse character has crossed over to the big screen, despite several being considerably more prominent that Batwoman. Supergirl, for instance, is a far more likely choice to appear in a movie alongside Superman before any hypothetical Batwoman film. In general the heavier and slower-developing pathos of Batman-type characters (which surely includes the Arrow, who's mostly just Batman in green with a bow) seems better suited for long-running TV series than single-shot super hero movies where the trend is toward breezy, funny, flashy storylines both in Marvel, land of endless quips, and now in DC, whose biggest success to date is the rollicking Aquaman.

The character of Batwoman is unlikely to appear in a live-action film until DC manages to get a new series of Batman films going and can expand out the bat family to eventually include Batwoman, as she was included in the 2016 animated film Batman: Bad Blood, a film that also included Nightwing, Robin, and several other Bat-associated characters. I wouldn't hold you breath for that to happen anytime soon.

It's still possible, right.