In the wake of the culture-defining success of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, studios famously made a pivot to darker, grittier movies for the mainstream. The Dark Knight was followed by a wave of major films that offered a grounded take on fantasy and sci-fi material. Gareth Edwards successfully rebooted Godzilla with a 2014 movie that bears little resemblance to its most recent sequels.
Around the same time, Marc Webb directed The Amazing Spider-Man, which stood in stark contrast to the more vibrant trilogy of Spider-Man movies directed by Sam Raimi a decade prior. Ridley Scott, on the other hand, reunited with Russell Crowe for a grim update of the Robin Hood legend; the movie underperformed at the box office, grossing around $320 million worldwide against a reported budget of more than $230 million.