Marvel really shocked the other movie studios, I think. Now every movie series has to have a "universe" whether it makes sense or not. They have no idea how to make something as popular as The Avengers, but they're trying to replicate it in the clumsiest way possible.
Well, it takes the willingness to build towards it over years instead of just jump right in, the history to draw from (they have this), and application of appropriate talent to each portion.
So, they have one out of three. And I hope every attempt that doesn't want to go through the effort fucking bombs. It took years for Marvel to get to The Avengers, and they weren't sure it would work out, but they cast people right for the roles and gave the projects to people whose attributes and abilities matched the source material, and they were
patient. Yeah, each move (except the first Iron Man) has little tidbits of stuff for the others that shows they have a shared universe, but they still work as their own movies.
Marvel didn't just drop it all off at Zack Snyder's doorstep with a list of demands and an unrealistic deadline. Yeah, he can have whatever budget he wants, but sometimes throwing money at a situation doesn't help. Sometimes you need time and talent to make something work, and while in some cases audiences will eat up the most ill-conceived shit (Transformers), you can't guarantee that all the time. I don't know anyone who's big-time looking forward to the Justice League movie, because WB hasn't earned it. There hasn't been a successful Wonder Woman movie, there hasn't been a successful Green Lantern movie, there hasn't been a successful Aquaman movie, etc. You've got an unrelated Batman and a Superman best known for killing people.
Meanwhile, remember 2011, 2012? People were
fired up for The Avengers. Yeah, a good chunk of them were in it for Tony Stark, but many who didn't know shit about the comics were still aware of a universe, and had seen at least one of the other movies because those movies attracted people on their own power, not just on the promise of a future cross-over project.
And I know WB doesn't care. I know Sony doesn't give a shit. If they did, there attitude wouldn't be "we'll see how it goes". It's not like they're really trying to establish anything here. It's a money-grab, and they'll move onto the next big thing as soon as they see it while Marvel continues to build their properties, likely until the point where it's so big and multi-fringed that it's no longer sustainable or sensible (like the comics). What eats WB and Sony up inside has nothing to do with quality, it's the worry that they won't make as much money this way as Marvel has. And they probably won't. And they're gonna have to live with it.
I just find it so funny that they can't comprehend what Marvel did to make it work. If you want to make these things, you can't just observe their results. You have to dig in and find out what works about them. RedLetterMedia has a phrase I adore, "you didn't notice, but your brain did." Many movie watchers may not know why The Avengers worked for them so well, but their brains did. That's the disconnect WB is having; they're only hearing the after-movie interview of "It was awesome!" and not understanding why.