A Cinematic Universe is the whole Filmography for a certain brand, company etc.
The DreamWorks universe for example,
The most popular DreamWorks movies are Shrek, Puss in Boots, Kung-Fu Panda, Madagascar etc.
The Shrek part of the DreamWorks Cinematic Universe would contain all Shrek movies, the full character list (background characters included), and the timeline.
The same would go for the other movies. Timeline is less important for
one specific movie (we don't need to have everything written down, some things that happen won't be important to the story at all, and aren't important to the timeline), but the order of the movies is more important. The example down below shows the difference.
Example:
Shrek is a disgusting swamp
monster, he has a simple life and is a simple swamp
monster .. (the other parts of the movie written out.) ❌
(Too much information, practically a spoiler.)
Shrek is a swamp
monster who saves, falls in love with, and marries a
princess with a
Donkey by his side. ✅
(
Short, literal summary of the first Shrek movie.)
An example how it would be used in a conversation is down below. (DreamWorks themed.)
“Do you know about the DWCU?”
“What's the DWCU?”
“The DreamWorks Cinematic Universe is all of the
media and the characters involved.”
...
“Remember when Shrek and
Fiona had sex on the
beach?”
