NEW YORK — “Batman v Superman” may be a massive movie — a $250 million globe-trotting blockbuster with a pulverizing marketing assault — but it’s just the opening salvo of a much larger campaign that aims to restore DC Comics to prominence in Marvel-dominated multiplexes.
It has not gotten off to a great start. Before audiences rush this weekend to see the superhero showdown of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” critics treated moviegoers to a smackdown of their own. The poor response — “godawful” was one of the harsher but not uncommon judgments — may mean little to opening weekend box office. But it suggests “Batman v Superman” may not be the ideal flagship for a new armada of DC adaptations.
“This movie is going to make money almost certainly. But more important is how people are leaving the movie theater,” says Cowen & Co. senior media analyst Doug Creutz. “If they walk out feeling kind of ‘eh,’ it’s a problem.”
