Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice doesn’t come out until mid March of next year, so if we’re hearing about it now you can bet that the promotion lead-up will be insane. I’m really looking forward to some of Ben Affleck’s interviews, because he usually reveals a bit too much about his personal life. It’s like he just can’t help himself. Ben has a new interview with Vanity Fair, part of their cover story on the new Warner Bros CEO, Kevin Tsujihara. Warner Bros will release Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad and Fantastic Beasts next year and there’s a lot of pressure on them to succeed following the box office disaster that has been the second half of this year. (They took some losses with The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Our Brand is Crisis and Jupiter Ascending among others, but there were much worse flops from other studios.)

Affleck talked about how great it was to work with Tsujihara and how Warner Bros is poised to hit it big with all their DC movies coming out. (Wonderwoman isn’t out until the summer of 2017, but I’d love to see that do well.) He also discussed the pressure that this film is under to succeed, and you wonder if he’s talking about just the film or about his career.

In case it wasn’t clear that expectations for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” are running extremely high at Warner Bros., star Ben Affleck put it in plain language.

“I think there is a ton of pressure on it,” Affleck said of the film, in which he plays Batman. “I mean I would be bulls—ting you to say there isn’t.”

Affleck said the press has had a lot to say about the struggles of many Warners’ films in 2015, but predicted that “Batman v Superman” will help launch a turnaround at the studio.

“You’ll see next year they are going to have a great year,” Affleck said. “They are now developing … probably the single greatest under-exploited IP asset in the entertainment business, the DC comic world. And now they have started to exploit that and you are going to see that blossom. And, when it does, it’s going to be massive.”

The Batman star praised Tsujihara for his deep involvement in “Batman v Superman,” which started with script meetings for the film.

“I was really impressed by that and by the intelligence of his notes, and the fact that he cared,” said Affleck. “It was not like some guys, especially at that level, where it would be, ‘We need a franchise movie … we just need a movie with the names ‘Batman’ and ‘Superman’ on it and it doesn’t matter what it is. For him, that wasn’t it. He was willing to take longer to make the movie to get it right to make it a movie of higher quality…”

The actor sounded both annoyed and accepting of the massive expectations that await the “Batman v Superman” debut.

“We are a very kind of instant gratification culture when it comes to analyzing the film business. And there is a lot of hyperbole involved,” Affleck said. “Nonetheless, there’s a lot of pressure on it. If it doesn’t do well, that will be extremely disappointing.”

But he said he isn’t sure what will be judged as success, concluding: “I leave that to the experts to decide.”

[From Warner Brothers]

For all you can say about Ben Affleck’s messy personal life, which is rumored to be “freaking out” executives at Warner Brothers, he knows how to play the game. He sounds professional, knowledgable and committed to his work. You can tell that he knows the business, does his homework and puts his time in. One of his movies won an Oscar for best picture. Even if this film fails, he’s not going away. He’s going to hustle and schmooze and do photo ops and strategic press leaks to try and ensure that he’s still in demand as an actor, as misguided as that may seem. (I mean he’s decent but his skill really seems to be in directing.) We’ll see if he can stick with the plan and keep his side pieces, gambling and drinking under control.

Affleck is shown out with his estranged wife and kids on 11-14-15. He’s also shown on the set of Live by Night on 11-16 and 11-13. Credit: FameFlynet and Pacific Coast News