4. The Studio's Monetary Expectations Are Too High
If Superman Returns had made $500 million worldwide the then-President of Warner Brothers Alan Horn would have probably green lit the already developing sequel in a heartbeat. Unfortunately for Bryan Singer, the film only made $391 million dollars, which put the film a little under the comfortable $405 million mark that 1.5 times the budget would have yielded. $14 million isn't anything to toss under the rug, but at the same time that money could easily be made by product tie ins, TV rights, and even Home Video sales. After all, $13 million was made in the first week of rentals ALONE. If Horn wanted the film to make more money, he should have waited around a little while. Then again, if Horn wanted a comfortable margin of profit, he shouldn't have poured $270 million into a franchise that had been out of action for almost 20 years. Yet he did, because he expected fans to simply flock back into theaters as if a day hadn't passed without a Superman movie in theaters. Name recognition is powerful, but it's not a given when it comes to business. It's especially not a given when two names are paired, and one name is more established than another. Horn may be gone from the Warner Brothers lot, but his horrible strategy when it comes to DC lives on with his successors.