The Flash and Supermax on Hold

Mtv Splash Page says that DC Comics will be careful with future releases and puts The Flash and Super Max on hold.

If you’re one of the DC Comics faithful and were hoping the dual box office successes of “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight” would mean more familiar properties on the big screen, you might be disappointed. According to “Dark Knight” scribe David Goyer, many DC Comic films in development at Warner Bros. are currently in a holding pattern — including his planned adaptation of “The Flash” and his Green Arrow prison-break caper “Super Max.”

“A lot of the DC movies at Warner Bros. are all on hold,” Goyer told IESB. “They’re going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause on at the moment.”

Goyer said the timing was no surprise, either.

“It was the doubleheader of both ‘Iron Man’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ coming out,” said Goyer, “so more than ever I think they’ve realized, I think DC was responsible for 15 percent of Warner Bros’ revenue this year, something crazy like that, so they realized that comic books, it’s become a new genre, one of the most successful genres.”

Still, you’d think that after “Iron Man” grossed $318 million domestically, while “The Dark Knight” did $531 million in the US, studio execs would be fast-tracking every comic book hero they could get their hands on. However, for each superhero blockbuster there are two or three disappointments (see: “Superman Returns,” “Hulk,” “Punisher: War Zone”). At the same time, “Iron Man” and “Dark Knight” weren’t your typical super hero flicks. It seems Warner Bros has taken a look at these adaptations — and their huge profits — and decided to rethink their approach to other comic book properties.

With the economy looking to make 2009 and beyond potentially shaky years at the box office, WB could be thinking that its DC properties are far too valuable to screw up.