I suppose anything is possible, but at present, it's pretty unlikely. And if they did, it would be because the Avengers peaked, and were on their way down, which in and of itself is possible, as the public reaches superhero movie saturation in general.
The reason why DC/Warner Bros. hasn't been able to keep up is:
FEEDER MOVIES
Instead of treating each superhero movie as a standalone and pretty much it's own universe, Marvel gave a nod (one of many) to the way comic book companies generally do things—at least one universe where crossovers occur.
Having already leased the rights away for three of it's all-time money making characters—Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four—the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), perhaps out of necessity, went about introducing various other individual characters that did not rival sales on a regular basis, but nevertheless had a decent fan following.
Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, and Captain America were all introduced as individuals before, and some of them had a couple of movies out before the Avengers came together. Within those movies, Black Widow and Hawkeye, were also introduced, so MCU moviegoers got to see all of them in action, and learn something about them before Avengers was made.
CHARACTERS COME FIRST
Marvel has always been best at developing the personal side of their characters, and grounding them in as much reality and humanity possible for such a genre. Maybe some better than others, but that's always been where the main emphasis has been. The superhero action has always been second—it's just been a pretty awesome second.
By so doing, the MCU has given its audience something to invest their emotions in. Since it's not likely that a main character is going to die right away, there has to be something else at stake. Perhaps the vulnerability of those around them, or some human flaw that needs to be overcome because mistakes made on the superhero level generally have huge repercussions, resulting oftimes in property destruction, and innocents either hurt or injured.
Building on these different human themes from the beginning, then bringing the group together with all of their strengths and weaknesses has made the Avengers the kind of movies they are, and they would not be anywhere near as successful without all of the individual character movies that came before them.
BETTER KNOWN ACTORS
With Robert Downey Jr. rebounding to restart his career, Scarlett Johansson coming into her own, the ever present Samuel L. Jackson, and Edward Norton as the first Bruce Banner, the MCU was able to take a chance on lesser known actors like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth to helm their own movies, and continue to bring with them bigger names or emerging stars like Chris Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch, and the like.
Meanwhile, starting with the Man of Steel, the DCEU had to rely on actors who have since vaulted to stardom, but were relatively unknown prior to their movie debuts, with the exception of Ben Affleck, who was not well received at all (though has managed to win over a lot of the naysayers). Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot (event with a reoccurring supporting role for a time with the Fast and the Furious films), Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller and Ray Fisher were hardly household names.
Now, though, it's impossible to think of any of those actors as no name, but it was the DCEU movies that has helped to launch them to fame.
TOO MUCH SUCCESS/MISSTEPS
To be fair, the DCEU has been trying to do the same thing, but the mega success of the Dark Knight series may have actually been a disservice when it came to expanding the universe and then bringing the superheroes together into the Justice League.
Instead, you had a decent Man of Steel movie, a rather overambitious Batman vs. Superman, that ends up killing off Superman in the end, just to bring him right back in Justice League, with Wonder Woman's own movie in between. Aquaman finally has his own movie, but one for the Flash has been floundering for a script, Cyborg doesn't seem to be too high up on the radar, and while another Wonder Woman is in the works, it appears that a new Batman will need to be cast, and unless something changes, another Superman.
In other words, the DCEU has been doing somewhat the opposite of the MCU, and it all feels like they're rushing to catch up, instead of taking the time that's truly needed to flesh out the individual characters.
And, unless they manage some kind of major reboot, one of the most powerful heroes of all, Green Lantern, is sidelined indefinitely because his movie was not well received.
SOME LUCK
Fifty years ago, if screen capture and CGI had been available, it's possible that Iron Man, Captain America and the Hulk all could have done well. But stories like Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy would have probably floundered (the current team used for the movies didn't even exist back then), along with the overarching Thanos plot, simply because Science Fiction in general was yet to go mainstream. Star Wars really paved the way a decade later, and of course, with the space race more of a reality by then, perhaps the public was ready for it.
TELEVISION/ANIMATED MOVIES
What's interesting about all of this is, DC characters have benefited greatly from both the CW superhero shows (particularly Arrow and now The Flash), as well as their many animated movie offerings. In the past, they're television cartoons have also dominated, where Marvel has a scant few animated movies out and hasn't been able to maintain a cartoon television series since the X-Men.
Meanwhile, the longest running live action Marvel show, Agents of SHIELD, is currently on hiatus and has had its share of issues since the beginning, even though the last two seasons have been consistently better. The Gifted, an X-Men Universe spinoff, is currently in limbo, while Runaways, another newer and thus lesser known series, has been given another short season on Hulu.
Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist, along with the Defenders, have all been given the axe by Netflix, and others like Legion, will have only one more season, while the ill fated Inhumans never got off the ground.
Thus, despite the relative success of their own properties on television or direct to DVD/Bluray/Streaming, the DCEU has not been able to translate that to the big screen, while Marvel, despite most of their television properties either cancelled indefinitely, in limbo, or on a short leash, have been able to create a masterpiece of standalone movies that flow into and around each other, culminating repeatedly into the Avengers.
ONE MORE THING
With the long desired acquisition of a large chunk of Fox Studios now finalized, Disney, Marvel's parent company, has managed to get back the rights to both the X-Men (which includes Deadpool), and the Fantastic Four. While the X-Men have done well, relatively speaking, it's hard to say that they've actually reached their potential. There's a lot of room for improvement. And the Fantastic Four has yet to be given a story worthy of its characters.
In other words, two of three major comic book franchises are coming back to Marvel at a time where the first three phases of the MCU are coming to an end. With Sony playing nice with Spider-Man, too, the foundation is there for the MCU to continue its domination, and potentially do it through the Avengers, or other superhero teams.
WRAP UP
The DCEU has a lot of ground to make up. After Avengers: Endgame debuts the end of April, the MCU will have 22 movies out, with another Spider-man coming later. The DCEU, as a coordinated effort, currently has five. Without some time, and perhaps some saturation or actual floundering of the MCU, the DCEU won't ever overtake the MCU, let alone come close to what Marvel has achieved at the box office.
I suppose anything is possible, but at present, it's pretty unlikely. And if they did, it would be because the Avengers peaked, and were on their way down, which in and of itself is possible, as the public reaches superhero movie saturation in general.
The reason why DC/Warner Bros. hasn't been able to keep up is:
FEEDER MOVIES
Instead of treating each superhero movie as a standalone and pretty much it's own universe, Marvel gave a nod (one of many) to the way comic book companies generally do things—at least one universe where crossovers occur.
Having already leased the rights away for three of it's all-time money making characters—Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four—the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), perhaps out of necessity, went about introducing various other individual characters that did not rival sales on a regular basis, but nevertheless had a decent fan following.
Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, and Captain America were all introduced as individuals before, and some of them had a couple of movies out before the Avengers came together. Within those movies, Black Widow and Hawkeye, were also introduced, so MCU moviegoers got to see all of them in action, and learn something about them before Avengers was made.
CHARACTERS COME FIRST
Marvel has always been best at developing the personal side of their characters, and grounding them in as much reality and humanity possible for such a genre. Maybe some better than others, but that's always been where the main emphasis has been. The superhero action has always been second—it's just been a pretty awesome second.
By so doing, the MCU has given its audience something to invest their emotions in. Since it's not likely that a main character is going to die right away, there has to be something else at stake. Perhaps the vulnerability of those around them, or some human flaw that needs to be overcome because mistakes made on the superhero level generally have huge repercussions, resulting oftimes in property destruction, and innocents either hurt or injured.
Building on these different human themes from the beginning, then bringing the group together with all of their strengths and weaknesses has made the Avengers the kind of movies they are, and they would not be anywhere near as successful without all of the individual character movies that came before them.
BETTER KNOWN ACTORS
With Robert Downey Jr. rebounding to restart his career, Scarlett Johansson coming into her own, the ever present Samuel L. Jackson, and Edward Norton as the first Bruce Banner, the MCU was able to take a chance on lesser known actors like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth to helm their own movies, and continue to bring with them bigger names or emerging stars like Chris Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch, and the like.
Meanwhile, starting with the Man of Steel, the DCEU had to rely on actors who have since vaulted to stardom, but were relatively unknown prior to their movie debuts, with the exception of Ben Affleck, who was not well received at all (though has managed to win over a lot of the naysayers). Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot (event with a reoccurring supporting role for a time with the Fast and the Furious films), Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller and Ray Fisher were hardly household names.
Now, though, it's impossible to think of any of those actors as no name, but it was the DCEU movies that has helped to launch them to fame.
TOO MUCH SUCCESS/MISSTEPS
To be fair, the DCEU has been trying to do the same thing, but the mega success of the Dark Knight series may have actually been a disservice when it came to expanding the universe and then bringing the superheroes together into the Justice League.
Instead, you had a decent Man of Steel movie, a rather overambitious Batman vs. Superman, that ends up killing off Superman in the end, just to bring him right back in Justice League, with Wonder Woman's own movie in between. Aquaman finally has his own movie, but one for the Flash has been floundering for a script, Cyborg doesn't seem to be too high up on the radar, and while another Wonder Woman is in the works, it appears that a new Batman will need to be cast, and unless something changes, another Superman.
In other words, the DCEU has been doing somewhat the opposite of the MCU, and it all feels like they're rushing to catch up, instead of taking the time that's truly needed to flesh out the individual characters.
And, unless they manage some kind of major reboot, one of the most powerful heroes of all, Green Lantern, is sidelined indefinitely because his movie was not well received.
SOME LUCK
Fifty years ago, if screen capture and CGI had been available, it's possible that Iron Man, Captain America and the Hulk all could have done well. But stories like Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy would have probably floundered (the current team used for the movies didn't even exist back then), along with the overarching Thanos plot, simply because Science Fiction in general was yet to go mainstream. Star Wars really paved the way a decade later, and of course, with the space race more of a reality by then, perhaps the public was ready for it.
TELEVISION/ANIMATED MOVIES
What's interesting about all of this is, DC characters have benefited greatly from both the CW superhero shows (particularly Arrow and now The Flash), as well as their many animated movie offerings. In the past, they're television cartoons have also dominated, where Marvel has a scant few animated movies out and hasn't been able to maintain a cartoon television series since the X-Men.
Meanwhile, the longest running live action Marvel show, Agents of SHIELD, is currently on hiatus and has had its share of issues since the beginning, even though the last two seasons have been consistently better. The Gifted, an X-Men Universe spinoff, is currently in limbo, while Runaways, another newer and thus lesser known series, has been given another short season on Hulu.
Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist, along with the Defenders, have all been given the axe by Netflix, and others like Legion, will have only one more season, while the ill fated Inhumans never got off the ground.
Thus, despite the relative success of their own properties on television or direct to DVD/Bluray/Streaming, the DCEU has not been able to translate that to the big screen, while Marvel, despite most of their television properties either cancelled indefinitely, in limbo, or on a short leash, have been able to create a masterpiece of standalone movies that flow into and around each other, culminating repeatedly into the Avengers.
ONE MORE THING
With the long desired acquisition of a large chunk of Fox Studios now finalized, Disney, Marvel's parent company, has managed to get back the rights to both the X-Men (which includes Deadpool), and the Fantastic Four. While the X-Men have done well, relatively speaking, it's hard to say that they've actually reached their potential. There's a lot of room for improvement. And the Fantastic Four has yet to be given a story worthy of its characters.
In other words, two of three major comic book franchises are coming back to Marvel at a time where the first three phases of the MCU are coming to an end. With Sony playing nice with Spider-Man, too, the foundation is there for the MCU to continue its domination, and potentially do it through the Avengers, or other superhero teams.
WRAP UP
The DCEU has a lot of ground to make up. After Avengers: Endgame debuts the end of April, the MCU will have 22 movies out, with another Spider-man coming later. The DCEU, as a coordinated effort, currently has five. Without some time, and perhaps some saturation or actual floundering of the MCU, the DCEU won't ever overtake the MCU, let alone come close to what Marvel has achieved at the box office.
View this answer on Musing.io
View this answer on Musing.io