and commercial hit for Warner Bros., nearly matching
Dawn’s box office performance on roughly half its budget before being followed by the more expensive, less successful
Justice League, which Whedon took over after Snyder was forced to depart the project after the death of his daughter.
Whedon’s film was mostly met with shrugs at the time, but has come under increasing ire in the last three years: From fans, who demanded (ultimately successfully) that the not-actually extant “Snyder Cut” be restored. From Snyder himself, who said he’d rather “blow that fucking thing up” than use a second of Whedon’s footage. From actor Ray Fisher, who alleged that Whedon was abusive on the movie’s set. And now from Jenkins, who gave the film a cold appraisal of the changes to its tone that Whedon attempted to implement: