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LIFE IN FOUR COLORS: SPECIAL EDITION #2
SUPER-HERO FILMS-THE LAST TEN YEARS
By: Bill Gladman
Hello again….here we are with yet another Special Edition of Life In Four Colors. A brief explanation of why another one…so soon….The Incredible Hulk movie. I was surprised by the box office numbers I saw this morning. Stunned actually. The Incredible Hulk film grossed only about 54 million dollars…..about half what the Iron Man film recently grossed and almost 8 million dollars less than the infamous 2003 Hulk feature film directed by Ang Lee.
Some factors in why this occurred….many people are probably worried about seeing a second Hulk film when they really didn’t like the first one. There was some confusion about this film, is this a re-boot? A prequel? A sequel? All these things plus gas is about twice as expensive now as compared to 2003…so the last thing you want to do is shell out some cash for a movie that blew chunks when you could have put the funds in the gas tank, right?
What I was confused about was this…..I know a lot of people that saw this film over the past weekend. Everybody I know that went to see it loved it and almost everybody that saw it plans to see it again in the very near future, some going as early as this evening. I myself plan to see it again as well, possibly tomorrow evening or at the very least….this coming weekend.
I also know several people who did not get to see the film this weekend because they were too busy and plan to see it soon.
Today’s box office numbers also made me more than a little concerned about the future success of the film and the plans Marvel has hitched to this movie and the others that are intended to follow this one.
I believe although the opening weekend numbers for the first film were better than this one, negative word of mouth eventually lead to that film being written off as less than successful, while (hopefully) positive world of mouth about this film will work in the opposite manner allowing it to pick up steam in the time left before the next big (Comic Related) film release in two weeks. That being an adaptation of “Wanted” with fan favorite, action babe, Angelina Jolie.
But the curious aspect of my Leo persona took over and I wanted to find out exactly how well this film did against other super-hero genre movies of the recent past. While checking into that info…I learned a lot of interesting facts about EXACTLY how successful each film was and why some franchises have came to an end, others struggle, some eventually succeed, and others just run other everything else in their path.
I thought it was so interesting…I wanted to share the info….with the one or two of you out there who might find it just as interesting. So let’s take a look back at how super-hero films (not comic book films….I tried to stick to the basic super hero flicks)… have done at the box office over the span of the last decade. The following stats are based on box office receipts only and do not include D.V.D. sales. Let’s kick it off with ….
Blade: released 1998
(first “Silver Age” super-hero flick)
Budget: unavailable
Opening Weekend Gross: $17,073,856
Domestic Box Office Gross: $70,087,718
World Wide Gross: $131,183,930
Net: unavailable
Ran For: unavailable
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X-Men: released 2000
Budget: 75 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $54,471,475
(record for that time)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $157,299,717
World Wide Gross: $296,750,053
Net: 222 million
Ran For: unavailable
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Blade 2: released 2002
Budget: 54 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $32,528,016
(almost twice the first film)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $82, 348,319
World Wide Gross: $155,010,036
Net: 101 million
Ran For: unavailable |
Spider-Man: released 2002
Budget: 139 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $114,844,116
(set new opening weekend record)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $403,706,375
World Wide Gross: $821,708,551
(would become one of the top five grossing
movies in history)
Net: $639 million
Ran For: 15 weeks
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Daredevil: released 2003
Budget: 78 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $40,310,419
Domestic Box Office Gross: $102,543,518
World Wide Gross: $179,179,718
Net: 101 million
(Why is this film considered a failed film?
$101,000,000 net profit spells sequel to me!)
Ran For: 22 weeks
(guess it did take it a while to make its
money…but it made it!)
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X2-X-Men United: released 2003
Budget: 110 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $85,558,731
Domestic Box Office Gross: $214,949,694
World Wide Gross: $407,557,613
Net: $298 million
Ran For: 21 weeks
(almost three times as much as Daredevil in
about the same amount of release length time) |
Hulk: released 2003
Budget: 137 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $62,128,420
(a very strong first weekend showing….but
it dies a slow death from here on out.)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $132,177,234
(the film suffers a 4 million dollar loss in the States.)
World Wide Gross: $245,360,480
Net: $98 million
(but only due to the world wide gross figures)
Ran For: 17 weeks
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Punisher: released 2004
Budget: 33 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $13,834,527
Domestic Box Office Gross: $33,810,189
(less than a million profit margin in the states)
World Wide Gross: $54,700,105
Net: 22 million
(only due to world wide figures….
still gets a sequel)
Ran For: unavailable
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Blade Trinity: released 2004
Budget: 65 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $16,061,271
(half what the previous film made)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $52,411,906
(30 million dollars less than the previous film)
World Wide Gross: $128,905,366
(also down from the previous film)
Net: 64 million
(although the film did make money it made a total of about 40 million dollars less than the second movie…Marvel decides the sheath the Blade franchise after making 185 million on three films…not enough with rising production costs)
Ran For: 11 weeks
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Hellboy: released 2004
Budget: 66 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $23,172,440
Domestic Box Office Gross: $59,623,958
(film suffers a 6 million dollar loss in the States)
World Wide Gross: $99,318,987
Net: 33 million
(thanks to the world wide box office totals. 70 million dollars less than Daredevil….but Hellboy gets a sequel and even a third possible film in the wings. Maybe Daredevil should grind his horns off too.)
Ran For: unavailable |
Spider-Man 2: released 2004
Budget: 200 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $88,156,227
(down 27 million from the first film but still impressive)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $373,524,485
(also down from the first film by about 30 million)
World Wide Gross: $783,766,341
(again down by 39 million. Man this movie’s a flop!)
Net: 584 million
(loses 54 million dollars total compared to the first film….but still a pretty good profit. Gets a third film green-lighted by the skin of its teeth. It did cost 61 million dollars more to produce the sequel.)
Ran For: 23 weeks
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Elektra: released 2005
Budget: 43 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $12,804,793
Domestic Box Office Gross: $24,409,722
(the movie loses 19 million dollars in the States. The largest loss since the “Silver Age” of super-hero flicks began back in 1998.)
World Wide Gross: $56,681,566
Net: 14 million
(becomes profitable but only due to world wide box office receipts, but makes the least amount of money of all the films produced in this ten year case study.)
Ran For: 11 weeks (somehow)
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Constantine: released 2005
Budget: 100 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $29,769,098
Domestic Box Office Gross: $75,976,178
World Wide Gross: $230,884,728
Net: 121 million
(makes just as much money as Superman Returns
would make a year later…..what no sequel?)
Ran For: unavailable
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Fantastic Four: released 2005
Budget: 100 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $56,061,504
Domestic Box Office Gross: $154,696,080
World Wide Gross: $330,120,875
Net: 220 million
Ran For: 25 weeks
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Batman Begins: released 2005
Budget: 150 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $48,745,440
(19 million dollars less than the 2003 version of the Hulk.)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $205,343,774
(but smashes ol’ Green skin in the long
run…wait it gets even better.)
World Wide Gross: $371,081,783
Net: 221 million
(told you….Batman Smash!)
Ran For: 20 weeks |
X-Men-The Last Stand: released 2006
Budget: 210 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $102,750,665
(franchise high)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $234,362,462
(up 20 million from previous film. Franchise high.)
World Wide Gross: $459,256,008
(that last $8.00 was mine. Up 50 million from previous film. Franchise high.)
Net: 249 million
(ends up making 49 million dollars less than the previous film due to the fact it cost 100 million more to make the third one. Despite the fact the film is very successful…many fans are very vocal about disliking it. This is just the first film to do this…there’s a second one coming….)
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Superman Returns: released 2006
Budget: 270 million
(the highest production budget of all the films featured in this column, but …it’s Superman. It’ll pay off…..good thing they signed an unknown actor to play the big blue boy scout.)
Opening Weekend Gross: $52,535,096
(4 million more than Batman Begins…take
that you flying rodent!)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $200,081,192
(Batman just sucker punched the guy.)
World Wide Gross: $391,081,192
Net: 121 million
(okay, Bruce….put that damn kryptonite ring away, will ya. And what are you laughing at Daredevil…you’re still blind. I’ve got six different kinds of vision.)
Ran For: 18 weeks
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Ghost Rider: released 2007
Budget: 110 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $45,388,836
Domestic Box Office Gross: $115,802,596
(only about a 6 million dollar profit margin here in the States…..but did better than Elektra. Punisher, and just as good as Hellboy.)
World Wide Gross: $228,738,393
Net: 129 million
(Hey wait a minute….did the Man of Steel just get his ass handed to him by the Spirit of Vengeance? I believe he did……..Ghost Rider sequel please…..c’mon anybody that can beat Superman in a fair fight deserves a sequel, right? C’mon…..)
Ran For: 11 weeks
(7 weeks less than Big Blue) |
Spider-Man 3: released 2007
Budget: 258 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $151,116,516
(36 million more than Spider-Man….sets
an all time high box office record.)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $336,530,303
(67 million dollars less than the first Spider-Man film in the States alone. Fan reaction to the film is terrible. Word of mouth will keep the movie from breaking anymore records after the opening weekend.)
World Wide Gross: $890,871,626
(beats the first film by 77 million dollars on a global level…not bad for a movie that everybody claimed to have hated.)
Net: 633 million
(6 million dollars less than the first film…..but still a financial success that overwhelms every other film on this list including X2-X-Men United, and Spider-Man 2. Despite those facts this film franchise seems to be in turmoil with rumors of creative friction, possible changing of the guard as far as writers, directors and cast go and negative Spider-Man reaction nation wide due to current events in the monthly comic.)
Ran For: 16 weeks
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Fantastic Four-Rise of the Silver Surfer: released 2007
Budget: 130 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $58,051,684
(only 2 million more than first FF film)
Domestic Box Office Gross: $131,921,738
(just less of 2 million profit margin in the States. 23 million less than the first feature film.)
World Wide Gross: $228,566,279
(101 million dollars less than the first film. A drop equal to the exact same amount the Daredevil movie would end up netting world wide. )
Net: 99 million.
(121 million dollars less than the first film a drop equal to the same amount Superman Returns would end up netting. Although profitable this film franchise is rumored to be done…..but a Silver Surfer spin off is a possibility.)
Ran For: 18 weeks. |
Iron Man: released 2008
(Marvel needs a shot in the arm and gets it
with the first “Bronze Age” super-hero film.)
Budget: 140 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $98,618,668
Domestic Box Office Gross: (so far) $297,918,329
(more than any of the X-Men films made during the entire time they were in theatrical release and just 76 million less than Spider-Man 2 totals in one fourth of the time.)
World Wide Gross: (so far) $545,391,621
(already ranking third on this list behind only Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3….both of which ran for an average of 15 weeks…..Iron Man has ran less than half that long.)
Net: (so far) 405 million
(only the three Spider-Man films beat this
incomplete total.)
Ran For: 6 weeks
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Incredible Hulk: released 2008
Budget: 150 million
Opening Weekend Gross: $55,414,050
(7 million dollars less than the first Hulk film. Is this a cause for alarm? I don’t think so. Very well received by fans and getting critical acclaim.)
Domestic Box Office Gross: (so far) $55,414,050
World Wide Gross: (so far) $86,409,489
(64 million dollars away from breaking even.)
Net: unavailable at this time.
Ran For: 3 days.
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Well there you go…..just in case you weren’t doing the math Marvel has produced 18 films in the last ten years (almost two a year and Stan Lee makes a cameo in 11 of them….just had to throw that in there somewhere…) and made about 4 billion dollars .
Not bad.
That’s all I have for now… See you in the funny papers.
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