Warner Bros. Reportedly Stressed That 'Justice League' Won't Outperform 'Thor: Ragnarok'

With Justice League hitting theaters this weekend and Thor: Ragnarok having debuted two weeks ago, this is the closest Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios has come to directly competing with one another to dominate the box office. While it's clear that Justice League will take the top spot, sources says that Warner Bros. is nervous that if the film doesn't top Thor's opening weekend, it could be the beginning of the end for the DC Extended Universe.

"If a B character from Marvel shut downs and outperforms the A team from DC, that's an embarrassment," a Justice League source The Hollywood Reporter. "It's going to be a stressful weekend for some [Warners] execs."

Being the two most popular comic book publishers created a rivalry between Marvel and DC that dates back to the '60s. Both companies have had their fair share of ups and downs over the decades, but with superheroes being the hottest commodity at the box office and with fans of both companies being as passionate as ever, the rivalry is at its all-time high.

With its Batman and Superman films of the '80s and '90s, DC was the biggest name in superheroes, until X-Men and Spider-Man took the world by storm in 1999 and 2002. Shortly after, Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins kicked off one of the most acclaimed series of superhero films of all time, all while Marvel Studios began cranking out hits like Iron Man, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Since the conclusion of Nolan's films, DC has struggled to find its footing while Marvel continued to churn out even more films.

Justice League is set to be the culmination of DC's biggest heroes, despite it only being the fifth film in this shared universe. When Marvel finally brought its heroes together for Marvel's The Avengers, it went on to earn over $1.5 billion worldwide.

In its opening weekend, Thor: Ragnarok took home $122.7 million, while Justice League is currently tracking to make somewhere in the realm of $110 million. This isn't to say the team-up film won't make a tremendous amount of money, but with the release dates being so close to one another, were the third solo film in the Thor series to earn more than what potentially should have been the DCEU's crowning achievement, it won't bode well for the franchise's future.

We'll just have to wait a few more days to see how much money Justice League takes in after debuting this weekend.

[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]