It’s generally considered a bad sign regards quality. International returns are the primary reason they keep making transformer movies as an example. They’re ridiculously popular in Asia so they remain profitable while attendance in the Us and the west have steadily dropped off.
It’s also pretty deceptive. Because international box office is every country but the US. The film doesn’t have to have done particularly well in any given market to generate a big number. And some of those markets (think China) are so big that a pretty small percentage of the population can turn up and still generate large ticket sales. So a high, or higher international box office doesn’t neccisarily mean broad popularity in any one market.
China is is the key international market because of its raw size and how it’s population is rapidly getting more affluent. And successful American movies in the Chinese market seldom crack the top 10 movies.
With the DCEU flicks specifically the international box office doesn’t appear to be enough to make them profitable (except Wonder Woman). Justice League made $650m globally. The published budget was $300m. That’s not a successful movies breakdown to begin with. But when you factor in that the movie may have actually cost over $600m between marketing, reshoots and the like it looks even worse. Reports are that it lost WB at least $100m.
Their biggest box office was Batman v Superman: Grouch Monster Murders Jesus at $870m. International receipts were nearly double the US box office. Had a published budget of around $400m. But again marketing reshoots and other expenses the movie probably cost well over half a billion to put out. So it’s been reported that the movie barely broke even if at all.
And since these movies haven’t generated expected merchandising and ancillary sales. There’s not nearly the additional income to offset that. Film after film loosing some money, or barely making money.
Compare that to undeniably popular franchises. Star Wars (until Solo) was basically printing a billion dollars with every film. With lower budgets and less marketing expense. Without the Asian market, as Star Wars has traditionally been quite unpopular in Asia. The Marvel flicks have produced multiple billion dollar moves, are apparently ridiculously popular in China. To the point the point that Marvel/Disney has altered plots to satisfy Chinese censors.
So these films aren’t making money. Even internationally. If they were broadly popular outside the US, or were gaining traction there. You’d expect them to be altering to target that audience. There doesn’t appear to be a single market you can point to where they are particularly popular. And they’re breaking even, ish, in markets where the major language is not English. Which would indicate it’s a spectacle based asses in seats situation.
