Superhero movies: Your rating v Box Office

[nuclearman]

According to the latest Box Office figures the best Superhero movie ever is Spider-Man 3 ... this is close to my worst ...

out of the list below - rank your best to worst ..

Worldwide Box Office
11 Spider-Man 3 (2007), $885,430,303
18 Spider-Man (2002), $806,700,000
22 Spider-Man 2 (2004), $783,577,893
67 X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), $455,260,014
88 Batman (1989), $413,200,000
93 X2 (2003) , $406,400,000
97 Superman Returns (2006), $389,569,408
125 Batman Begins (2005), $352,000,000
130 Iron Man (2008), $350,033,014
144 Batman Forever (1995), $335,000,000
150 Fantastic Four (2005), $329,295,569
183 X-Men (2000), $294,100,000
186 Superman (1978), $289,400,000
196 Batman Returns (1992), $282,800,000
201 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), $277,520,333
249 Hulk (2003), $241,700,000
257 Batman & Robin (1997), $237,200,000
291 Ghost Rider (2007), $219,702,596


1.Spider-Man (2002)
2.Batman Begins (2005)
3.Spider-Man 2 (2004)
4.Superman Returns (2006)
5.X-Men (2000)
6.Batman (1989)
7.X2 (2003)
8.Fantastic Four (2005)
9.4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
10.Superman (1978)
11.Ghost Rider (2007)
12.X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
13.Hulk (2003)
14.Batman Returns (1992)
15.Spider-Man 3 (2007)
16.Batman Forever (1995)
17.Batman & Robin (1997)

(I haven't seen Iron Man yet)

[Pól Rua]

Well, I thought 'Spider-Man 3' was a garbled mess and my favourite superhero film is 'The Rocketeer', so I guess me and the box office are gonna hafta agree to disagree.

Also 'Mystery Men' rocked.

Let's see that. Quick capsule reviews. Hrmm...

Worldwide Box Office
1. Spider-Man 3 (2007) - garbled mess.
2. Spider-Man (2002) - Pretty good, actually. I quite liked this one.
22 Spider-Man 2 (2004) - the rot starts to set in here. Alfred Molina is wasted. Nothing much happens.
67 X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - a bunch of crap thrown at a wall to see which bits would stick.
88 Batman (1989) - spectacular visuals are there to distract you from the fact that there's no story here.
93 X2 (2003) - Also pretty good. Built well on the first film. Some really sweet performances.
97 Superman Returns (2006) - Haven't seen. Probably won't.
125 Batman Begins (2005) - full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. A bunch of loud noises and gadgets.
130 Iron Man (2008) - really fun film. Thoroughly enjoyable.
144 Batman Forever (1995) - Haven't seen. Probably won't.
150 Fantastic Four (2005) - I actually quite liked this. McMahon was woeful, but I actually found the rest entertaining. Chiklis was great.
183 X-Men (2000) - Really fun and quite neat. Magneto's plan was a bit lame and half-arsed but the rest was pretty good. Not as good as #2.
186 Superman (1978) - Fun film let down by a godawful ending. "Hitting the reset button? Really? THAT's your ending?"
196 Batman Returns (1992) - Some nice bits, but really more of the same. Too much going on, not much happening.
201 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) - utterly forgettable and tedious.
249 Hulk (2003) - Some really nice ingredients that just utterly fail to come together. A bold but tragically flawed experiment.
257 Batman & Robin (1997) - I'm vomiting out my arse.
291 Ghost Rider (2007) - Not as bad as many think. I found bits of it fun, but in the end, pretty inconsequential. Not much stayed with me.

[twilight]

Superman Returns made $389,569,408?

I thought it was a giant bomb.

-Twi

[Lord of Denial]

Superman Returns made $389,569,408?

I thought it was a giant bomb.

-Twi

Superman Returns>>>Batman Begins ( At worldwide Box-Office)

That is a freaking shocker.

[Jmacq1]

Superman Returns made $389,569,408?

I thought it was a giant bomb.

-Twi

Worldwide Box Office is a surprising thing, sometimes. "Golden Compass" bombed in the US (about 70 million in sales), but has made over 300 million when you take in the international box office.

But since Superman Returns was "the most expensive film ever made" (despite that not being the fault of Bryan Singer or much of anyone associated with the final product that was Superman Returns), the profit margin was much smaller, and it was extremely disappointing in terms of domestic box-office.

Basically, the $100 or so million dollars that Warner Brothers had spent in the 15 years prior to Superman Returns (On the multiple failed versions) were "tacked on" to the cost of Superman Returns.

Of course, Iron Man is still in theaters, so by the time its' run is over, I suspect it'll probably surpass X3 in terms of overall box office.

[Agent Helix]

Superman Returns made $389,569,408?

I thought it was a giant bomb.

-Twi

It was. That was it's global take, so pretty much strike half of that from the table, since studios don't really count foreign box office, given how carved up the profits are by overseas distribution. It limped, mostly because WB kept it in theaters for so long solely to hit the magic mark, to $200 million stateside, which was well under even the conservative estimates of the budget ($250-300 million by most accounts, and that's without adding in the additional costs from previous efforts). Pretty much, if a movie doesn't make back its production budget (not counting marketing costs) stateside, it's generally considered a wash. Superman fell short by at least $50 million on that front. $389m looks like a really big number, but for a movie of this budget, that's a pitiful worldwide gross. They've said themselves they expected at least $500m worldwide.

By contrast, Batman Begins performed a lot better, even though it has a lower total gross. It cost about a hundred million less, made back its operating budget stateside (a bit slowly, but still), and then had a pretty brisk DVD turnout as icing. It was a quantifiable success, though not the megahit they were hoping for. Superman Returns is a quantifiable failure.

[Jmacq1]

Your assertion that the studios "don't really count foreign box office" is patently false, or at least seriously outdated. The fact that they regularly tweak and cast movies in ways designed to appeal to international audiences puts the lie to it. If foreign box office "doesn't count" why even bother with that sort of thing? Heck, why release it overseas at all if they're not making money off of it?

[Agent Helix]

They do make money, but not as much as people seem to think. Foreign box office can help, but like DVD sales, it's not the primary factor in whether a film is considered successful. A much, much larger chunk of that money is taken out in foreign markets than in the domestic market. Sometimes as much as 50% of that take. They DON'T really count it all that much, because it usually doesn't really add up to all that much. And the fact of the matter is this movie underperformed to the tune of at least a hundred million for the total gross, by WB's own admission. It simply wasn't a profitable venture, given the cost.

I mean, look at it this way. Not all of this money goes back to the studio, not all of the domestic gross, not all of the foreign gross. A lot more of the foreign gross goes to other parties, including foreign distributors for each region, and it gets to be a pretty big cut. We're already slashing out of the domestic box office (the longer a film is in theatrical release, the larger the theater's share of the box office becomes, as incentive not to replace it with a newer film on a screen. Returns was kept in theaters a long while, and not because it was doing gangbusters business.), so that $200 million doesn't all go back to the studios. About 75% of that does, maybe less, maybe a little more. Then cut about half of the foreign gross, and you start to get closer to the real numbers, and they're not good when weighted against a budget of (according to BoxOfficeMojo, anyway) $270 million. If there IS a profit there, it's a very small margin, and a very low reward for that amount of risk.

And that's the thing about Superman in this case, they don't need to take that risk to get profit from the character. AOL/Time/Warner owns the character, lock, stock and barrel. This isn't a case like Sony with Spider-Man, where there only real income from the character is the film franchise. Warner Bros. doesn't have to make a movie with the property to turn a solid profit, when the comics sell well enough, the cartoons sell well enough, the toys sell well enough, and they own all of that. It's a lot easier for them to cut and run and just quietly shelf the franchise until they can try again down the line.

[Chiasm]

Those numbers are meaningless unless they are adjusted for inflation. Because of course a recent movie is going to make more than an older one seeing as ticket prices are now about triple what they were just twenty years ago (I vividly remember scrounging for change so I could go see the first Batman in 1989 - tickets were $3.00 and I was at $2.63 for a while before finally finding a few coins under the bed.)

Spiderman 3 is my 4th favorite comic book movie ever though. It was flawed but only because it tried to do too much, not because it was bad. The only comic book movies I liked better were the the first two Spidey's and X-men 2.

[JDogindy]

Here's all you need to know how I feel about some of these movies: Joel Schumacher must die!

Actually, I know that Ghost Rider stunk due to the somewhat-obscurity of the character and the fact that people said it was Cage's "career ending film". That's my idea.

And Spiderman 3 would've been better if they had made the characters a lot less emotional than what they were made out. 2007 wasn't a good year for Spidey, movie, comic book, and video game-wise.

[Chiasm]

And Spiderman 3 would've been better if they had made the characters a lot less emotional than what they were made out. 2007 wasn't a good year for Spidey, movie, comic book, and video game-wise.

I see the problem with Spidey 3 being that it needed another 30 minutes of story to fully develop the characters. I loved the storyline and what the film tried to do but I found that a lot of it felt superficial due to time constraints and the film felt too busy. Still though give me a good honest attempt at character development like in Spidey 3 over a bland cookie cutter villian like Obdiah Stane in Iron Man (I liked the rest of Iron Man, just not the bland boring villian).

[Toku King]

I'm too lazy, so like above, I'll review them quickly, but also rate them out of 5.

Spider-Man (2002) - 5/5. If I could, I'd give this a 10/5. Absolutely amazing, and one of the best superhero movies of all time.

Batman Begins (2005) - 4/5. It was a good movie, but not as good as people make it out to be. Neelson was fantastic as Rah's Al Ghul.

Spider-Man 2 (2004) - 5/5. Almost on the exact same level as the first one, this movie had everything. Great action, amazing action sequences, perfect dialogue, awesome special effects, and epic acting. One of the best sequels of all time.

Superman Returns (2006) - 1/5. Hated it. Boring, repetitive, and filled with unlikable characters. Only thing close to saving this movie is Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, and even he's irritating after a while.

X-Men (2000) - 3/5. It wasn't bad, but it felt too hollow and unexciting in many places.

Batman (1989) - 4/5. Jack Nicholsen as the Joker. 'Nuff said.

X2 (2003) - 5/5. Another one of the best superhero movies to date. It was filled with the drama and action that the first one should've had.

Fantastic Four (2005) - 2/5. I don't think it's as bad as everyone says it is, but that still doesn't mean much. Johnny and Ben were perfectly cast, but other than that? Not so much. Dr. Doom was wasted horribly here.

4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) - 3.5/5. To be honest, I liked this film. Up until the Galactus climax, it was a great movie. They improved on Dr. Doom, Silver Surfer was a cinematic masterpiece(despite a few special effect flaws here and there), and the four star players seemed to have had a better handle on their characters this time around. It is also one of the funniest superhero movies I've ever seen, but also kept a certain level of drama and excitement. My biggest problem, however, was the climax. Galactus was extremely, extremely disappointing, and the ending just ruined it for me(it made no freakin' sense!).

Superman (1978) - 4/5. Another overrated superhero movie that I still enjoyed. I don't think anyone will top Christopher Reeves as Superman, period. The around the world ending was a little lame, and the missile idea made no sense(Supes can fly around the world in a nanosecond, but he can't catch missiles?), but those are the only real flaws that I can point out. The rest was classic stuff.

Ghost Rider (2007) - 2.5/5. The riding scenes were amazing, but everything else was dull, unneeded, and uninteresting.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - 4/5. It was pretty good. A little rushed, but certainly fun and action packed. The acting was as solid as ever, too.

Hulk (2003) - 1.5/5. On the big screen it's great, but once you see it as an actual movie and not just a cheap thrill ride, it's beyond horrible. Yuck. I only add a .5 because the 'Hulk vs. The Army' scene is still a great moment in film. But only for that should you see it. And if that's enough to convince you to get it, rent the movie cheap and skip to the army scene.

Batman Returns (1992) - 3/5. Pretty boring, but Danny Devito as the Penguin was a treat, as was seeing Michelle Pfeiffer act amazingly as the sexy Catwoman.

Spider-Man 3 (2007) - 4.5/5. Extremely underrated. Sure, it had its flaws, but I still loved it. There were all sorts of things that should've been left out(Gwen Stacey, Venom, Uncle Ben's killer retcon, ect.), but I still liked it a lot. The action was better than ever, James Franco was more likable as Harry than he has ever been, and Sandman was one of the best special effects creations of all time(played perfectly by Thomas Hayden Church).

Batman Forever (1995) - 3.5/5. I liked it. Jim Carry was spot on as the Riddler, but Two Face was too goofy and random. Val Klmer was a great Batman, though.

Batman & Robin (1997) - 1/5. Ugh. When I was a kid, I enjoyed it for the ridiculous special effects, but now I've grown up to see how horrible this really was. I decided to watch it after a few years one day and thought "What? I really like this? I mean, how could anyone in the right mind ever like this movie?"

Iron Man(2008) - 5/5. Another one of the best superhero movies I've ever seen. Everything was so perfect. The casting, the Iron Monger fight, the terrorist raid, and so on. Tony kicking Ten Ring ass was epic.

And I'll add some others that you seemed to have missed:

The Incredibles(2004) - 5/5. Best superhero group movie of all time, and one of the best animated movies ever made. It's on par with all of the other top movies easily.

Hellboy(2004): 5/5. Ron Perlman as Hellboy is one of the greatest comic book movie casting choices of all time. The rest of the cast was just as good, and made characters that you truly cared about. The entire movie was a thrill ride that never stopped for a second. Another one of the finest superhero flicks.

Ultraman The Next(2004): 5/5. 2004 was one heck of a year! A Japanese movie few Americans have seen, though I was lucky enough to have obtained a copy of it. This is one of the best Ultraman incarnations of all time, and is easily the best Japanese superhero movie to date. The aerial battle was something else, and everything was top notch movie making. You'll never see a tokusatsu movie this good ever again.

[hugh45]

Fantastic Four (2005) - 2/5. I don't think it's as bad as everyone says it is, but that still doesn't mean much. Johnny and Ben were perfectly cast, but other than that? Not so much. Dr. Doom was wasted horribly here.

4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) - 3.5/5. To be honest, I liked this film. Up until the Galactus climax, it was a great movie. They improved on Dr. Doom, Silver Surfer was a cinematic masterpiece(despite a few special effect flaws here and there), and the four star players seemed to have had a better handle on their characters this time around. It is also one of the funniest superhero movies I've ever seen, but also kept a certain level of drama and excitement. My biggest problem, however, was the climax. Galactus was extremely, extremely disappointing, and the ending just ruined it for me(it made no freakin' sense!).


Agree agree that Big G climax was terrible(ugh!!) and I didn't really like when
SS powers came from his board.

[nuclearman]

Iron Man(2008) - 5/5. Another one of the best superhero movies I've ever seen. Everything was so perfect. The casting, the Iron Monger fight, the terrorist raid, and so on. Tony kicking Ten Ring ass was epic.

I can't wait to see it!!



And I'll add some others that you seemed to have missed:

The Incredibles(2004) - 5/5. Best superhero group movie of all time, and one of the best animated movies ever made. It's on par with all of the other top movies easily.

Hellboy(2004): 5/5. Ron Perlman as Hellboy is one of the greatest comic book movie casting choices of all time. The rest of the cast was just as good, and made characters that you truly cared about. The entire movie was a thrill ride that never stopped for a second. Another one of the finest superhero flicks.

Ultraman The Next(2004): 5/5. 2004 was one heck of a year! A Japanese movie few Americans have seen, though I was lucky enough to have obtained a copy of it. This is one of the best Ultraman incarnations of all time, and is easily the best Japanese superhero movie to date. The aerial battle was something else, and everything was top notch movie making. You'll never see a tokusatsu movie this good ever again.

I only went on the top 300 box office hits so mystery men, hellboy, and Ultraman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB_VTSMH1OM) weren't there ... hellboy and mystery men i believe are underated.. as for the incredibles i enjoyed that too but as it is animated i just left it out ...

[GrifterWC]

Batman Begins (2005) - Flawed but WB finally gets it.
Superman (1978) - Still has charm after all these years.
Batman (1989) - Visuals and The Joker
Spider-Man (2002) - Well done
Superman Returns (2006) - A homage (remake) to the 70's but could have been way better
Batman Returns (1992) - Seemed rushed and they ruined Penguin
X-Men (2000) - Okay
Spider-Man 2 (2004) - Wasn't as good as the first
Fantastic Four (2005) - Could have been way better
X2 (2003) -
4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) - Why
Batman Forever (1995) - WB's first disaster
Hulk (2003) - Can anyone say ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
X-Men: The Last Stand - Pick a plot instead of rolling them together
Batman & Robin (1997) - Damn you WB

Never Seen

Ghost Rider (2007)
Iron Man (2008)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)

[jesse_custer]

Here are my viewpoints, very quickly:

Spider-Man 3 - Too many plotlines, too many villains, too many songs. Will never watch this again.

Spider-Man - It's good. Sure, the Goblin helmet is lame, but this film has a personality, especially during the wrestling sequence.

Spider-Man 2 - Just above average. Not enough humor, not enough focus on Ock.

X-Men: The Last Stand - Enjoyable for McKellan's performance and a couple of scenes. But for a movie with a lot of big emotional scenes, there's very little emotional resonance here.

Batman - One of the best comic book movies. Supporting cast is great for the most part (Robert Wuhl rules in this film).

X2 - Perhaps too cluttered, but damn this is an exciting ride with good characterization.

Superman Returns - Ultimately, it's as boring as the other Superman movies.

Batman Begins - A good action film with a really bad performance by Holmes and some annoying plot mechanics.

Iron Man - Surprisingly great.

Batman Forever - Ugh.

Fantastic Four - They got Thing and Human Torch right, but that's it.

X-Men - Decent but ultimately an introduction and/or marketing tool for the upcoming films. McKellan and Stewart scenes kick ass.

Superman - I'm against the grain here, but I think it's pretty damn boring. I also hate the effects.

Batman Returns - A decent try. Its weirdness is both a strength and weakness.

4: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Tried watching this. Could not do it.

Hulk - Very, very long and bad. Stupid split screen trick does not bring the comic to life. Good characterization and real action (i.e., not fighting a fucking poodle) might have helped.

Batman & Robin - Ugh, Part 2.

Ghost Rider - Same as the Silver Surfer movie. Tried but couldn't do it.

[stealthwise]

Spider-Man 3 (2007) - I can honestly say that this is a terrible movie. Too many characters, not enough time spent on characterization, the logic of the movie makes no sense, the CGI looks horrible, and it doesn't come together in any meaningful way at all. At. All.

Spider-Man (2002) - Fun to watch based on nostalgia for the character and an "I can't believe they finally made it!" kind of way, but it's not that strong a film. Weak dialogue, goofy cgi.

Spider-Man 2 (2004) - Again, not impressed here. The ending was the worst part though.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - #$@!*(^&... I can't stand this film, it was a mess from start to finish, with tons of poor decisions made in terms of storyline and a complete lack of coherence and consistency with the first two films. Again, the CGI goes nuts and makes things look like garbage.

Batman (1989) - Decent enough flick, but Jack Nicholson kind of takes over, and the film was probably best left to stand alone as a beginning/end kind of thing.

X2 (2003) - Really good movie that balanced action and characterization, fitting in as many characters as possible. The CGI is kept to a minimum and doesn't distract from the storytelling.

Superman Returns (2006) - Some nice moments, but poorly paced. The effects actually work well for the kind of movie it is, but there's a bit too much of a remake in here and the lack of an actual physical threat for Superman.

Batman Begins (2005) - Ignore Katie Holmes and you've got an almost perfect superhero movie.

Iron Man (2008) - Haven't seen it yet.

Batman Forever (1995) - Pretty bad, although... no, just pretty bad.

Fantastic Four (2005) - Bad stuff. You can't ruin the greatest villain of all time and get away with it. Richards and Sue are miscast as well.

X-Men (2000) - A really solid superhero film with a bit of a cheesey final battle scene, but it works for what it is, and again, special effects don't dictate what happens.

Superman (1978) - Some cool moments, but it's kind of boring at times, and horribly painful to listen to Margot Kidder sing. The ending is crap as well.

Batman Returns (1992) - Eh, not great, not bad. It works as a kid's action movie, and a vehicle to sell toys. Christopher Walken is the highlight.

4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) - I couldn't watch more than 15 mins of this crap.

Hulk (2003) - Too long, horribly written, uneven throughout, switching from cruddy indie drama to overblown Hollywood action film. Tries hard but fails on every single level. It's also Hulk only in name, pretty much, as Bana does a terrible job, and there's no real moments of actual inner anguish reflected within the movie. Daddy issues don't make for a good movie.

Batman & Robin (1997) - Worst movie of all time. This goes so far beyond campy that even the Gay Pride Parade would call it faggy. (Too much?)

Ghost Rider (2007) - Couldn't get past 10 mins...

[ultramandingo]

.......the box office my faves - ghost world - american splendor - popeye - history of violence - would'nt cover nick cages ghost rider toupe buget

[nuclearman]

Never Seen

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

.. make sure you don't..

[J. Robb]

According to Box Office Mojo, "The Rocketeer" only made $47 million.

Further proof there is zero correlation between ticket sales and quality.

[The Xenos]

Ugh. It's terrible that Spider-man 3, one of the worst recent comic films, is number 1. Plus X-men 3 is right behind hind it and the best selling X-men film. When a vulgar YouTube video is used in the film more than the characterization from the comic, that's a very bad sign. Never mind the first warning sign of changing directors.