It’s easy to take potshots at Zack Snyder. Hell, even Barbie takes one at ’em, and it was damn funny. He seems like a total bro who makes movies for dudes that are big, loud, and usually lacking in nuance. Even when he does something ostensibly feminist like Sucker Punch, it…well, it really wasn’t. When his movies fail, they fail hard, and people love to rub that in his face.
The thing is, people have a tendency to exaggerate when it comes to Zack Snyder. They look at the failure of Justice League and the Snyderverse in general, and they assume it was all terrible and nothing he did made money. That’s ridiculous to anyone who pays attention, but former WB exec Greg Silverman sets the record straight to someone who claimed 300 was Snyder’s only hit film for the studio. Ridiculous.
Not true. We lost some money on GAHOOLE and a fair amount on SUCKERPUNCH. The rest of his films at WB were very profitable. Very. https://t.co/5WuQMuRriH
— Greg Silverman (@gregsilverman) July 31, 2023
Silverman is referring to 2010’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, which is basically Star Wars with feathers. It’s actually a damn good movie that more people should see. Sucker Punch, released a year later, had a lot of buzz considering its scantily-clad cast of ass-kicking ladies, but the film was a critical and box office dud.
Other films Snyder was involved with for WB (as a director, writer, or producer) include Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Watchmen, 300: Rise of an Empire, Justice League, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. All of them made money. Doesn’t mean they made as much as they should’ve, and it certainly doesn’t mean they were all good.
Snyder is currently living it up with Netflix who have already invested in his Army of the Dead franchise and the upcoming sci-fi epic Rebel Moon. He’s doing just fine.
