With the release of Wonder Woman, I thought it would be a good time to revisit my Superhero charts, plotting Worldwide gross vs Production budget.
Previous versions of this chart focused on Post-Iron Man 1 releases, but I have decided to expand the chart to cover all Marvel/DC superhero films released from 2000 to present. Going back further than that becomes less informative due to poor international tracking and a lack of big films outside of Batman and Superman.
To start with, here's the full chart:
Worldwide Gross (minus China) vs Production Budget for Marvel/DC Superhero films released between 2000 and Present.
Code:
Title Worldwide minus China Reported Budget Gross/Budget Ratio
1 Avengers 1434 220 6.52x
2 Avengers: Age of Ultron 1165 265 4.40x
3 Iron Man 3 1094 200 5.47x
4 The Dark Knight Rises 1032 230 4.49x
5 The Dark Knight 1005 185 5.43x
6 Captain America: Civil War 962 250 3.85x
7 Spider-Man 3 873 258 3.38x
8 Spider-Man 817 139 5.88x
9 Deadpool 783 58 13.50x
10 Spider-Man 2 778 200 3.89x
11 Batman v Superman 777 250 3.11x
12 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2^ 750 200 3.75x
13 Suicide Squad 746 175 4.26x
14 Amazing Spider-Man 709 230 3.08x
15 Guardians of the Galaxy 677 195 3.47x
16 X-Men: Days of Future Past 632 200 3.16x
17 Iron Man 2 616 200 3.08x
18 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 615 290 2.12x
19 Man of Steel 605 225 2.69x
20 Captain America: The Winter Soldier 598 170 3.52x
21 Thor: The Dark World 589 170 3.46x
22 Big Hero 6 574 165 3.48x
23 Iron Man 570 150 3.80x
24 Doctor Strange 568 165 3.44x
25 Wonder Woman^ 550 150 3.67x
26 Logan^ 512 97 5.28x
27 X-Men: The Last Stand 457 210 2.18x
28 Thor 449 150 2.99x
29 X-Men: Apocalypse 420 178 2.36x
30 Ant-Man 414 130 3.18x
31 X2: X-Men United 407 110 3.70x
32 Superman Returns 383 270 1.42x
33 The Wolverine 374 120 3.12x
34 X-Men Origins: Wolverine 373 150 2.49x
35 Batman Begins 373 150 2.49x
36 Captain America: The First Avenger 371 140 2.65x
37 X-men: First Class 354 150 2.36x
38 Fantastic Four (2005) 328 100 3.28x
39 Lego Batman Movie 300 80 3.75x
40 X-Men 296 75 3.95x
41 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 289 130 2.22x
42 The Incredible Hulk 254 150 1.69x
43 Hulk 244 137 1.78x
44 Ghost Rider 225 110 2.05x
45 Green Lantern 220 200 1.10x
46 Watchmen 185 130 1.42x
47 Daredevil 179 78 2.29x
48 Fantastic Four (2015) 168 120 1.40x
49 Blade II 155 54 2.87x
50 Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 133 57 2.33x
51 Blade Trinity 129 65 1.98x
52 Catwoman 82 100 0.82x
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AVERAGE 531 161 3.35x
^Estimated Gross. Film still in release
Notes:
- Since the Chinese box office yields a much smaller percentage take for Hollywood studios (25% vs over 50% domestic, and an average of 40% overseas), and since many films never saw release in China, all of these figures are Worldwide - China. There is still the issue of fluctuating exchange rates, but this at least gives us less skew in modern films (which regularly hit $100M+ in China) vs old films and things like Deadpool/Suicide Squad.
- I am only including films with production budgets of at least $50M. Lower budget films typically have limited overseas releases, and/or a less extensive domestic marketing campaign.
- Logan, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Wonder Woman are still in release, and have had final grosses estimated for this chart. Logan released in Japan this weekend, but is pretty much done in every other territory. As such, my estimate should be accurate within $2-3M. GotG2 is mostly done overseas, but is still making decent money domestically. As such, I'd give my estimate a +/- $10M. Wonder Woman was more of a guess. I assumed $625M WW, with $75M in China to get the number you see. I'd put a +/- $50M on that.
This is the 18th of movie releases since X-Men helped kickstart the superhero genre. As such, I thought that it would be interesting to break the large chart above into smaller groupings by release year. If we use 00-05, 07-11, and 12-17, we get comparable 6 year spans. More below:
Superhero films released between 2000 and 2005
The first span covers the early days of the Superhero revival, including some early sequels in for the three films that lead the revival (Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man).
Code:
Title Worldwide minus China Reported Budget Gross/Budget Ratio
1 Spider-Man 817 139 5.88x
2 Spider-Man 2 778 200 3.89x
3 X2: X-Men United 407 110 3.70x
4 Batman Begins 373 150 2.49x
5 Fantastic Four (2005) 328 100 3.28x
6 X-Men 296 75 3.95x
7 Hulk 244 137 1.78x
8 Daredevil 179 78 2.29x
9 Blade II 155 54 2.87x
10 Blade Trinity 129 65 1.98x
11 Catwoman 82 100 0.82x
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AVERAGE 344 110 2.99x
Raimi Spider-Man is head and shoulders above everything else. Batman Begins undoes some of the bad will from the Schumacher days. X-Men is successful, and X2 is met with a favourable upswing. Blade fizzles out. Fantastic Four is surprisingly strong, while Hulk misses. Catwoman delivers the largest bomb the genre has faced in the new millennium (and is the only film to fail and hit that 1x Production budget mark).
Superhero films released between 2006 and 2011
Code:
Title Worldwide minus China Reported Budget Gross/Budget Ratio
1 The Dark Knight 1005 185 5.43x
2 Spider-Man 3 873 258 3.38x
3 Iron Man 2 616 200 3.08x
4 Iron Man 570 150 3.80x
5 X-Men: The Last Stand 457 210 2.18x
6 Thor 449 150 2.99x
7 Superman Returns 383 270 1.42x
8 X-Men Origins: Wolverine 373 150 2.49x
9 Captain America: The First Avenger 371 140 2.65x
10 X-men: First Class 354 150 2.36x
11 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 289 130 2.22x
12 The Incredible Hulk 254 150 1.69x
13 Ghost Rider 225 110 2.05x
14 Green Lantern 220 200 1.10x
15 Watchmen 185 130 1.42x
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AVERAGE 442 172 2.55x
This period's most important films were obviously The Dark Knight and Iron Man:
- TDK put Batman back on top, and delivered the most acclaimed superhero film to date. It was just the fourth film in history to hit a $1B gross WW, was the second film in history to crack $500M domestic, and set speed records for pretty much every box office measurement.
- Iron Man kicked off the MCU, which would go on to become the most successful film franchise in history over the course of the next decade. Iron Man also delivered an A-Tier superhero gross (domestically) to what was considered a B-tier property at best. This was the start of Marvel Studios proving that marketing and consistency were more important than well worn IP.
Aside from Iron Man, this period only lays the foundation for the MCU (to mixed results if we are looking at return on investment prior to the Avengers). By the end of 2011 we had people on these forums predicting the decline of the superhero genre due to audience fatigue after Thor and Cap failed to replicate the success of Iron Man.
Before reaching super hero fatigue (tm), foreign audiences ate up the conclusion of Raimi's Spider-man trilogy, while passing on both the Hulk (a second time) and Watchmen. X-Men First Class paid for Fox's treatment of the franchise in the earlier years of this period, and Green Lantern bombed so hard that WB refrained from releasing anything unrelated to Batman/Superman until this past year. Green Lantern himself is stuck waiting at least a decade for another shot at success.
You'll notice that there was a sizable bump to the average gross of films in this period, with only Watchmen failing to hit $200M. Budgets also expanded to match. Outside of TDK and Spider-Man, Superhero films still find Top-tier international blockbuster status elusive.
Superhero films released between 2012 and 2017
Code:
Title Worldwide minus China Reported Budget Gross/Budget Ratio
1 Avengers 1434 220 6.52x
2 Avengers: Age of Ultron 1165 265 4.40x
3 Iron Man 3 1094 200 5.47x
4 The Dark Knight Rises 1032 230 4.49x
5 Captain America: Civil War 962 250 3.85x
6 Deadpool 783 58 13.50x
7 Batman v Superman 777 250 3.11x
8 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2^ 750 200 3.75x
9 Suicide Squad 746 175 4.26x
10 Amazing Spider-Man 709 230 3.08x
11 Guardians of the Galaxy 677 195 3.47x
12 X-Men: Days of Future Past 632 200 3.16x
13 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 615 290 2.12x
14 Man of Steel 605 225 2.69x
15 Captain America: The Winter Soldier 598 170 3.52x
16 Thor: The Dark World 589 170 3.46x
17 Big Hero 6 574 165 3.48x
18 Doctor Strange 568 165 3.44x
19 Wonder Woman^ 550 150 3.67x
20 Logan^ 512 97 5.28x
21 X-Men: Apocalypse 420 178 2.36x
22 Ant-Man 414 130 3.18x
23 The Wolverine 374 120 3.12x
24 Lego Batman Movie 300 80 3.75x
25 Fantastic Four (2015) 168 120 1.40x
26 Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 133 57 2.33x
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AVERAGE 661 177 3.96x
The declaration of Superhero Fatigue was premature. Avengers in 2012 became the third highest grossing film of all time worldwide (still fifth place 5 years later), grossing over $1.5B. With China thrown in, Iron Man and crew now hold the top 4 worldwide Superhero grosses (though TDK slips into #4 with China removed).
Superhero films went from rarely hitting $300M internationally to passing that with almost every major release. Marvel Studios upped their production to the current pace of 3 films a year, and WB established their take on a shared cinematic universe. The X-Franchise saw a revival in interest (thanks in part to the return of some original actors) and Fox's attempts at R-Rated superheroes were met with big success. Sony on the other hand was not as luck, failing to land their Spider-Man reboot after Raimi left the franchise. That said, other than a relatively cheap Ghost Rider sequel that hit before The Avengers, the only real failure from this era was 2015's Fantastic Four. The Lego Batman also underperformed overseas.
Average worldwide grosses are up over $200M per film without China in this era. If you added in China, the difference would be closer to $300M. At the same time, budgets haven't really gone up all that much, so the average film is seeing a much better return (partially offset by the collapse of the home video market).
We still have 3 superhero films to release in 2017, but I don't see any of them missing $600M.