Its not so much that but that they think they matter more than they really do. Its like a political campaign. You want to capture independent, centrist swing voters but also don't want to lose your party "base." For these sorts of movies, its general moviegoers who might or might not have ever read a single comic book while the base are the hardcore fans who you can depend on to go see (unless they're pissed off.) You need both groups.

Or worse, they aren't open to the idea of diversity in a genre. I mean look at westerns. John Ford made many good ones. So did Sergio Leone of a different generation with differnet filmatic standards and political concerns. Genres thrive on diversity of talent, stagnation of ideas and filmatics leads to genres dying. Like the western.

Christopher Nolan and Marvel can't produce every single Comic Book/Superhero/Fantasy/Sci-Fi property out there. And not every single one of them can be a universal audience friendly summer blockbuster. Superman is not Batman, X-Men is not Batman, Fantatsic four is not X-Men, and so forth. (A reason if you ask me why GREEN LANTERN flopped a few years back: It basically ripped off BATMAN BEGINS and IRON MAN, but added nothing to the filmatic narrative for itself.)

Consider last year. THE AVENGERS and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES were both in my book great summer blockbuster spectacles. Both different takes on what is a "universal-friendly" superhero movie. Whedon's movie was fueled by humor and paying off a larger than life universal "cross-over" event. Nolan's movie was run by psychology and down to Earth yet still fantastical angle. Both produced to sell toys and lunchboxes.

Then we also got DREDD, based off the Judge Dredd comics from the U.K. Those filmmakers understood that a big screen Dredd film can only work if its incredibly over the top R-rated violent. Really a throwback to the 1980s action film. They also knew that the character himself is the least interesting, most bland element The "stars" are the metropolitan environment of this bleak dystopic future, and the fantastical adversaries and obstacles (usually satirical) for Dredd to prevail over. He exists simply to kick ass, nothing more. That movie wasn't made to sell lunchboxes. Very good movie.

And to give Nolan/WB and Marvel credit, they understand the stagnation concern. That's why they're planning to expand themselves to untapped territories if you will. WB is rumored to finally get ready to produce a Wonder Woman movie, which I actually think can absolutely work. (It can totally backfire as well, but that's the same concern for any property adaptation.) Marvel is planning to do Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther and Dr. Strange and Ant-Man and Ms. Marvel and so forth.